Continued construction delays at the Milton swimming pool have left residents a little hot under the collar - both figuratively and literally.
With one of the warmest and driest summers in recent years in the region, many residents have been keen to take a dip in the pool at the end of a long hot day.
Unfortunately, the Clutha District Council has advised the pool will remain closed because construction of the new changing rooms had fallen behind schedule.
A Milton resident, who declined to be named, said he had three children under the age of 5 and he was keen they should have swimming lessons.
In lieu of the Milton pool, he was taking the children for lessons in Dunedin.
"If Milton was open, we could take the kids every day, to get their confidence up. But at the moment, we can only afford to go once a week.
"The [Milton] pool is only open in summer. If they don't hurry up, summer is going to be over soon.
"The work should have been done over the winter when the pool is closed to the public.
"There's a lot of people in Milton pretty [angry] about this."
He said he had called the Clutha District Council several times to ask when the pool would be reopened, and was told a different date each time.
"They just keep bumping the time back."
CDC chief executive Charles Hakkaart said the contract awarded for the project had been based on a 14-week construction period, and the work should have been completed before Christmas.
However, he said "a number of issues had arisen" which meant the project had fallen behind schedule, and needed to be resolved before the pool could be reopened to the public. He estimated it would be opened next month.
"Council staff have been working over the recent holiday period to progress these outstanding issues.
"We appreciated that this will be extremely frustrating for regular pool users and council apologises for the inconvenience caused."
