Dundee City Council is set to spend close to £1m on swimming pool maintenance over the next three years as it looks to renew an existing contract.
A notice has been listed on the Public Contracts Scotland website offering a 36-month tender for the servicing and maintenance of pool plants and equipment across council properties.
This work will include keeping the city’s trouble-hit Olympia pool operating efficiently.
The successful bidder will also be responsible for minor and urgent repair works which may arise from deterioration or damage.
The total estimated value of the contract is £700,000, with an option to renew for a further two years. Applications are open until June 4.
Current maintenance contract nearing end
Those bidding for the contract must demonstrate they have the relevant experience to deliver services “similar in scope, scale and duration” to those described in the tender.
This, the notice added, should provide Dundee City Council (DCC) with the confidence that tenderers have adopted the role of principal contractor and principal designer.
The current maintenance contract is with Glasgow-based contractor Barr & Wray.
The advertisement comes less than a month after councillors agreed to an independent investigation into the repeated maintenance issues at the Olympia centre.
Dundee’s flagship leisure facility has been besieged with problems since it was opened in 2013.
After closing during Covid, it was forced to shut between October 2021 and December 2023 for £6 million worth of repairs to be carried out.
Emails obtained by The Courier through a freedom of information request subsequently revealed concerns about the facility had been raised just weeks after it opened by the-then DCC chief executive David Dorward.
This included the deterioration of the plant room infrastructure, which was branded “shocking” during a committee meeting held in summer 2013.
Pools closed again this year
The leisure and toddler pools were forced into a further closure in February after a metal supporting rod that had become detached from the flume structure fell and nearly hit swimmers below.
They remained shut for three months – only reopening to the public on May 6.
A Dundee City Council spokesperson said: “This tender is for the renewal of an existing maintenance contract.
“The current contract with Barr & Wray is nearing its expiry date and therefore we are going out to tender for it again.”
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