YORK'S Yearsley Swimming Pool will stay shut for at least another week - this time to allow for repairs to the ventilation system.

Even after it reopens, it will need to close down again at a later date for another week while repairs are carried out to the roof.

City of York Council had been hoping that the baths, which shut down a fortnight ago because of problems with the heating system, would reopen yesterday.

Leisure director Charlie Croft says the original heating fault, along with a secondary heating problem which only came to light after the closure, had now been fixed.

But a survey into the condition of the site had highlighted a number of problems which also needed addressing before the pool could reopen to swimmers.

He said experts had examined the roof because of health and safety concerns, after bolts had fallen out in recent years.

They had concluded it was not in a dangerous condition, but it would still need patching up in the next few weeks, and this would necessitate a week-long closure. He said three ventilation fans were not working and needed repairing or replacing. Without them, there had been problems of excess condensation, causing puddles to form - posing dangers that people might slip and hurt themselves - and damaging metalwork in the roof.

He said the fans were situated in the roof high above the pool, and it would be necessary to put up scaffolding to get up there to carry out repairs. He thought the motors had probably broken down and would need repairing. "The repairs have already started and we hope that the facility will be back up-and- running next week," he said. "In the meantime we can only apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Yearsley's closure, following the shutdown of the Barbican pool earlier this year, means that the only municipal pool available in York continues to be the Edmund Wilson Baths on the western side of the city.

Ernie Dickinson, of the Save Our Barbican campaign group, has called for the Barbican Pool to re-open until the Yearsley baths are fixed, but the council said earlier this year that it could not afford to keep it open any longer.

Updated: 14:10 Tuesday, November 23, 2004