Community rallies to clean up Pells Pool in Lewes ahead of reopeningCommunity rallies to clean up Pells Pool in Lewes ahead of reopening
Community rallies to clean up Pells Pool in Lewes ahead of reopening

Community rallies to clean Pells Pool in Lewes ahead of reopening – in pictures

The community spirit was high in Lewes over the weekend as volunteers gave up their time to clean Pells Pool ahead of its grand reopening this weekend.

Residents were on their hands and knees cleaning and weeding the area while soaking up the glorious sunshine. They were joined by Lewes MP Maria Caulfield who got stuck in with the hard work. Mick Symes, joint admin of Lewes Present Facebook group, said on Saturday (July 18): “The water temperature is 18C – the staff and volunteers are sparing no efforts in ensuring the Pells Pool will be safe and welcoming when it soon reopens. The amount of work that has been done to ensure it will be ready is quite amazing. Staff are being assisted by a hardworking team of volunteers who are literally on their hands and knees cleaning and weeding. My thanks to all the staff and volunteers.” Pells Pool in Brook Street will reopen to swimmers this Saturday (July 25), Pells Pool Community Association confirmed. Conrad Ryle, chairman of the association, thanked everyone who helped over the weekend. “It was so great to see everybody,” he told the Express. “There was a great community spirit – thank you to everybody for their hard work. We are ready to go and have got all of vital equipment we needed to reopen.” Mr Ryle said town mayor councillor John Lamb was due to visit the pool on Thursday (July 23). “He is going to swim the length of the pool,” Mr Ryle added. This year’s season at Pells will be very different from previous years. Mr Ryle and Phil Ranlsey, pool manager, reminded pool-goers of the new arrangements. “There will be shorter ticketed sessions this season, paid for in advance, with strictly limited numbers, and predominantly lane swimming,” they said. “And there will be social distancing and health and safety arrangements in place. We hope to include some family sessions – though, inevitably, these will be much more limited than usual. In all this, we will be following the guidance that had been generated in recent weeks by both the Royal Life Savings Society (RLSSUK) and Swim England for the safe operation of pools, with effective social distancing and health and safety arrangements in place for swimmers and staff.”

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