A couple of years ago Llandudno's leaky old swimming pool was demolished and replaced with the new Swimming Centre. The talk at the time was that the new pool would be built to competition, even Olympic, standard.
Having been to the old pool many times I've finally paid a visit to the new one. At first glance it all looks very impressive. The building has an unusual wave shaped roof and as you step in through the door you find yourself in a spacious reception area. From here you make your way through to a large changing area. The changing area is mainly communal , which didn't go down too well with many people but is handy for parents at least. There are male and female only rooms, although these are accessed via the communal area and are closed in school hours as the pool is used for swimming lessons by local schools.
As you step into the pool area you can't help but notice the large seated grandstand at one side of the water. There must be several hundred seats for spectators. And then you get the disappointment. The pool itself looks much smaller than the old one, from memory it only appears to be half the length of it's predecessor. To make matters worse when we went, on a Sunday morning, half the width was cordoned off for swimming club members. Luckily there weren't too many members of public so there was some room to move.
Next to the main pool is the smaller children's pool. This pool has a floor that can be raised and dropped to change the depth. On the occasion we visited the floor was raised right to the top of the pool for some reason. This was unfortunate as I was hoping it would be a bit warmer than the main pool which was colder than expected to say the least.
Overall I got the impression that whoever designed the centre planned out the reception, changing rooms and grandstand and then was left to squeeze in whatever sized pool they fit in the remaining space.
All in all, disappointing. read more