Extreme heat has contributed to delays in the re-opening of the leisure pool at Ipswich’s Crown Pools.

The pool re-opened yesterday after being shut for three weeks due to maintenance work.

Concerns were raised about the pool at the start of the month after small pieces of debris and dust were found to be falling to the leisure pool.

In particular concerns focused around whether mastic material, a type of plastic sealant, could be moving in the roof.

The council initially used ropes to try and assess the situation, allowing the pool to stay full but when workers were unable to find the damage the decision was taken to drain the pool so they could bring in a cherry-picker.

The draining and refilling of the pool takes over 10 days to complete.

While the leisure pool was closed off the competition pool and baby pool remained open.

Despite this concerns were high that the leisure pool would not be open in time for the start of the school holidays which begin this week.

In particular parents were worried as swimming is one of the activities on offer with the council’s iCards.

The cards, which were distributed to over 6,000 children in the local area, give free access to a number of activities to those aged between five and 16.

A council spokesperson confirmed that part of the delay to the re-opening of the pool was caused by extreme heat which meant that workers could only carry out investigation work for 20 minutes at a time as well as by the council’s desire to keep the other pools open.

Investigation work has now been completed and the roof has been found to be safe.

The council say that a safety net has been installed just under the roof structure as a precautionary measure.

Work will now begin on the outside of the roof this week but that all the pools will remain open throughout.

An Ipswich Borough Council spokesman said: “We are pleased to announce that the Leisure Pool has reopened today in time for the school summer holidays.

“We have carried out some essential maintenance and now we are back to normal.

“We apologise to customers for the inconvenience over the past few weeks but we do not compromise on people’s safety.”