THE OVAL sports centre and swimming pool, blighted by troubles for months, is finally due to open its doors on Saturday.

The final part of the £2.4m revamp has been the completion of the swimming pool complex seven months behind schedule.

The delay was caused because Wirral council originally told contractors the wrong number of swimming lanes to lay - and then couldn’t make its mind up.

But test sessions with a variety of different user groups are taking place this week and the pool will finally reopen to the public for a full programme from Saturday.

The new complex and chan-ging village incorporates many “accessibility” features, such as warmer water, a ramp allowing access to both pools, hoists and wheelchair storage. Other aspects of the refurbishment, such as the eco-friendly lighting and the development of eight new, short-side football pitches and the revamp of the main sports hall, were already completed and open to the public some weeks ago.

Site manager Mike Henderson said: “We’ve had a few snags and hiccups in the past, but the place now looks great and we can now claim to be one of the best equipped facilities in the area.

“We have listened to the public and user groups through a consultation process and taken all their ideas on board. So far we’ve had a really positive feedback. Before the closure in June 2007 we were bringing in £750,000 per year, we now we need to get people coming back to the centre.