YORK'S Yearsley Pool is set to remain closed for at least another week after safety concerns were raised over the roof.

City of York Council is hoping the swimming pool can re-open by the end of next week - but says this will be dependent on the results of a survey.

Leisure director Charlie Croft has revealed that experts will examine the condition of the roof to see whether it is safe to reopen the baths.

He said the problems followed on from a number of bolts having fallen out of the roof - the pool closed for several weeks last year after bolts were found in the water.

Mr Croft said bolts could not be put back in after they had fallen out, and the roof's condition was now being exacerbated by condensation and water from outside the building getting into the metalwork.

The baths, situated near the Nestl Rowntree factory, closed last Monday because of a heating system failure. The council originally hoped it would be able to reopen by next Monday.

Mr Croft said it was still hoped the heating problem could be repaired by early next week, but the extra health and safety issues meant the reopening had had to be put back. He said that if the survey showed the roof was unsafe, the council would look for advice on how to fix it, in the way that the Barbican pool roof had been repaired some years ago.

A City of York Council employee, who did not want to be named, contacted the Evening Press to say: "The whole system (pool system) is knackered. It could go at any time and it would be a massive job to repair it.

"It's 100 years old so I suppose it's got to be expected."

He added: "A lot of the lads there have been sent over from the Barbican.

"They were told one place was closing and sent to another and now that's closing.

"They're being messed about. It's absolutely farcical."

Mr Croft agreed that the pool's condition was poor, but said that that was why the council was proposing to spend £2.7 million on refurbishing it.

In the meantime, York has only one municipal pool still open - Edmund Wilson, which reopened earlier this week after closing temporarily because of heating and emergency lighting problems.

The Barbican Centre baths shut down in April pending a redevelopment of the site, with the authority planning to build a replacement pool in nearby Kent Street by 2006.

Updated: 09:31 Saturday, November 13, 2004