Local MP Richard Foord gave his backing to the Flamingo Pool in Axminster last week, as it reopened after emergency repair work.

The charity-led swimming pool opened in full for the first time since Christmas last week, having discovered a significant structural issue in the main pool which had to be repaired.

The repairs are reported to have cost in the region of £17,000, which will have come as an unwelcome expenditure for the pool, which recently launched a £250,000 fundraising appeal to secure the future of the facility, through the installation of renewable and sustainable energy sources and improvements so that the pool can be run efficiently, economically and with less pollution to the environment.

The reopening of the Flamingo Pool was celebrated with a coffee morning last week, which was attended by Axminster's MP, Liberal Democrat Richard Foord.

Coinciding with the government's budget announcement, Mr Foord said that the £63million being made available to support swimming pools was welcome, but they needed to make sure that community initiatives such as the Flamingo Pool "get their cut", rather than just council-owned facilities.

He said: "Local authorities have done a pretty good job on the whole of keeping local authority-owned leisure centres running through Covid and the energy crisis.

"But we have to make sure that initiatives like the Flamingo community pool – which is very much from the grassroots up, created from the hard work, contributions, philanthropy and fundraising of this community for more than a decade and created back in 1998 – that this is continued on for the next quarter of a century.

"Thank you all for your support of this pool and I wish you every success for the next couple of decades and more."