THE former leisure pool at the Bournemouth International Centre is now a building site only six weeks after it was finally closed to the public.

Gone is the wave machine with giggling swimmers bobbing up and down in its wake, and gone are the cries of laughter from children on the water slides.

Yesterday (August 16) workmen were inside the now empty pool basin constructing brick walls to create a new floor level.

Building work in the former pool hall is now well under way, said a spokeswoman from Bournemouth council. It is the first stage of a £18 million revamp of the whole of the BIC.

"Work has started on the old pool hall with contractors stripping out the hall and working on the floor and ceiling structure," she said.

"This will continue until early September when there will be a two-month break in order to accommodate the Conservative and Liberal Democrat conferences."

Despite an energetic campaign by residents and some councillors, council leaders still decided to scrap the popular pool.

They claimed that they had no choice but to shut it as part of a crucial BIC revamp to bring it into line with other top conference centres.

"The finishing date for the whole redevelopment of the BIC is scheduled for October 2005," said the spokeswoman.

"The former pool area will be used for conferences, entertainment and exhibition displays."

The leader of the local Save the Wave Campaign, David Stokes, said: "We are still bitterly disappointed about the closure of the swimming pool which had served the town for 20 years.

"Time will tell whether it was the right decision. But I can say that we have already heard from residents whose relatives visit in the summer and they've been telling us that they are extremely upset about the closure. The pool is definitely being missed."

First published: August 17