Hot pool faults prove costly

The Mount Hot Pools lost up to $7000 after faults caused the centre to close for two days last week.

The first closure happened on Friday because of an electrical fault and the pools reopened on Saturday but another fault occurred later that night, causing the pools to be closed again on Sunday.

A Tauranga City Council spokesman said the ongoing issues were due to a fault between the bore motor, or pump, and the above-ground electrical connection. "Both the electrical cables and motor are new so the recent problems were unexpected. The contractors believe they are now on top of the situation and are cautiously optimistic that this part of the plant will continue to perform as required."

During the two closures, an estimated $5000 to $7000 was lost in revenue but if the fault had occurred in January, the cost would have been much higher.

Pool staff were given the option to take annual leave and two staff were on site to deal with customer inquiries and to take massage bookings which were not affected by the failures.

Other staff were enlisted in cleaning the facility or worked in another of the Tauranga City Aquatics facilities.