A STRUGGLING Shaftesbury swimming pool could reopen within a fortnight.

A meeting of creditors on Friday ruled that the liabilities of the failed Shaftesbury Community Pool Company will not be handed on to Shaftesbury Leisure Limited (SLL) – the not-for-profit company hoping to take on the Barton Hill facility.

Shaftesbury restaurateur David Shepherd, a director of SLL, said news that the pool was “clean and clear” of liabilities had come as a “huge relief”.

“We’re waiting for North Dorset District Council to complete a programme of works to bring it up to their own licence and inspection reports. Once that’s done, we could reopen within two or three weeks.

“To have lost the pool within three months of losing the leisure centre would have been a great tragedy for Shaftesbury.

“We believe that with the group of people we have to manage the pool, and the backing of the town and district councils, we can make it a success,” said Mr Shepherd.

Liquidator Peter Hall, of Buchanans Ltd of Southampton, said he had “disclaimed” the lease. “As far as I am concerned, the lease has effectively been passed back to NDDC, and I hope that Shaftesbury Leisure Ltd (SLL) has great success with it.”

A spokesman for NDDC said the authority hoped to finish maintenance work yesterday and would soon be issuing a one-year lease to the volunteers.

Further consideration of a longer lease would be given at the end of the 12-month period, the spokesman said.

Shaftesbury Town Council recently committed £25,000 to the pool’s new management. Shaftesbury mayor Cllr Lester Dibben said the benefits to Shaftesbury would spread beyond those needing somewhere to swim.

“We need to increase tourism in the town and to attract holiday makers”. The pool is central to that attraction, and also to the health and wellbeing of the people of Shaftesbury, said Cllr Dibben.