THE swimming pool at Salt Ayre was opened to the public in September 1997 - six months late and £1.5 million over budget but completed 'to the very highest standards', according to the Town Hall.

Last week we were told the pool is to close for three months in October for retiling and regrouting, maintenance of the movable floors and refurbishment of the changing rooms at a cost of £131,000.

Other work, we are informed, includes replacement of fitness equipment and maintenance work on the building. And in addition, we are told the estimated loss of revenue during the closure amounts to £70,000.

So is it normal practice to have to retile an indoor swimming pool after only eight years? The council obviously did not think so because it failed to allow for it in its maintenance and life cycle cost budgets.

Did the council specify the appropriate material specifi-cations and workmanship during the two year design period prior to commencing work on site in order to produce a tiled swim-ming pool of the highest standard and quality?

We know that the render coating to the pool had to be done twice because, when first applied in accordance with the council's material specification, it failed to adhere.

Major problems were also encountered with the tiling work due to inaccuracies and lack of detail in the tiling specification presented by the council.

These are among the reasons why, in the next few weeks, we will receive yet another inflation-busting council tax payment demand through our letter boxes and why we should take action to put an end to this culture - cap it at the current rate of inflation.

S Williams, Morecambe.