MALVERN Splash swimming pool was temporarily shut because of 'staff illness'.

Resident Paul Burton blamed the closure on a lack of lifeguards and questioned whether Freedom Leisure, which runs the site, should step aside.

The swimming pool was also closed for a week in July in order to carry out 'essential maintenance'.

Freedom Leisure apologised for the delayed opening on August 13 and insisted it did not have a shortage of staff.

Mr Burton, aged 66, who uses the pool four times a week, said: "Malvern deserves better than this.

"We are getting sick and tired of Malvern Splash and Freedom Leisure.

"They shut it for a week at the beginning of the school holidays to fix the changing room floor.

"On a number of occasions I've arrived to find it's shut because there's no lifeguards, like on Monday."

The retiree has sent a Freedom of Information Request to the district council to find out how many times the pool has been closed.

Mr Burton, of Clevelode, near Malvern, said: "It happens probably every couple of months."

David Pugh, Freedom Leisure area manager, apologised for the closure.

He said: "We’re extremely sorry for the delay to pool opening on 13 August and the inconvenience it caused our early morning swimmers that day.

"This was due to very last minute staff illness, and while a replacement was sourced as quickly as possible, the early hour meant it took a little time to reach people and for them to arrive to site.

"We wish to reassure customers there is no shortage of staff and that the rest of the facilities were open on time."

Mr Pugh said the pool was closed for a week in July for essential maintenance work, after a previous contractor, which later went into administration, did a bad job.

He said: "The decision to close at this time was based on usage statistics highlighting it as a quiet period, thus resulting in the least impact on our customers."

The manager added that customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to the company and said there had been an increase in people using the pool in recent years.

Mark Hammond, contracts and performance manager for Malvern Hills District Council, which owns the leisure centre, said: “Our deal with Freedom Leisure is not only saving taxpayers significant sums of money but has delivered more than £1million of investment in enhanced facilities.

"On top of that in the first three years of the deal we have seen more than 80,000 additional visits to our leisure centres.

"We have every confidence Freedom Leisure will continue to provide excellent value for money and a high level of service to our residents.”