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“I love to come and train here but you don’t want to get out of the water and feel dirty” - Olympic hopeful Cassie Patten
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Sink or swim?

TOP British swimmers could be forced out of Stockport by ‘filthy’ conditions at Grand Central Pools.

Swimmers and coaches at Stockport Metros, who train at the facility run by Serco, described squalid conditions that are affecting their preparations for this year’s Olympics - and threatening their health.

They claim the pool had to be evacuated when sewage leaked into the pool during a regional swimming meet last year, while other complaints included faeces leaking through the floors of the showers, chewing gum and hairballs at the poolside and ‘dirty, unkempt’ conditions.

Olympic hopeful and World Championship silver medallist Cassie Patten moved from Devon to train at Stockport’s 50-metre pool complex.

But she is threatening to leave if conditions don’t improve.

Speaking exclusively to the Stockport Express Cassie, pictured above, said: "It’s dirty. There’s things in the toilets that have been there since I came here. If I was a mum I wouldn’t let my child change in the changing areas.

"It’s one thing the public notice, people comment it never used to be like this five or 10 years ago. It’s such a great facility it’s a shame to see it dirty and unkempt.

"When you swim water gets in your mouth. When you are training so hard you are susceptible to illness, the last thing you want is to get ill from the pool itself.

"It was the biggest decision of my life moving 300 miles from everyone I love to come and train here but you don’t want to get out of the water and feel dirty."

Head coach Sean Kelly is concerned about how the state of the public pool is affecting his swimmers’ health - and their prospects at this year’s Olympic Games.

Sean, who moved to Metros in 1995 and has been voted top coach in Britain twice in the last four years, said: "It’s a disgrace, filthy. It is a great pool but Serco are just running the whole building down. It’s not a professional environment, you only have to look at the place, it doesn’t look like somewhere you train Olympians. It doesn’t help preparations for Beijing, it’s distracting.

"If all my swimmers go I’ll have to go with them. I worry about the health risks."

Grand Central has been a performance centre for 11 years, after opening in 1993. Metros is the country’s best performing swimming club, whose members have claimed half of the British Olympic swimming medals in the past 16 years. And 17 of the club’s swimmers have qualified for the Olympic trials at the end of this month.

Swimming development manager Julie Bennett said: "The facility is not as clean as it needs to be, and it must be putting the general public off. The swimmers train here for 24 hours a week, and the general cleanliness is not acceptable. We have been here since the pool was opened and it is a fantastic facility but it has gone downhill."

Ian Phelps, director of leisure for Serco, said: "The last problem we had with sewage was when the drains backed up in 2003. There is a large number of people that come through the doors and at peak times if is difficult to keep on top of things, staff do get under pressure, but as a basic rule the centre is clean and well presented, a fantastic facility for Stockport. I will be arranging a meeting with the operational director and Sean."

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