HALO Leisure chiefs say their swimming pools across the county will remain closed as it is not financially viable to open them yet.

The registered charity had planned to welcome back customers to their swimming pools in Ledbury, Leominster and Ross during August.

However, Halo bosses say the reality of operating with significantly reduced capacity, to support social distancing, which results in a considerable reduction in income, means it is not economically possible for them to reopen as planned.

Chief executive Scott Rolfe said: “We had calculated the financial impact of opening pools with considerably reduced numbers of swimmers to support social distancing and require funding support to cover the inevitable loss of this staggered but safe way of operating.

“Disappointingly the leisure sector has not benefited from central government financial support packages which have proved a life line for the food, retail and arts sectors.

“Herefordshire Council, as our local authority partner, understands the challenges faced by Halo at this time.

“We are exploring with them opportunities to access support locally and nationally to get the swimming pools open.

“ We are, of course, not alone in facing this problem. Halo is one of a thousands of registered charitable trusts and social enterprises managing council-funded or owned leisure centres and too many of them are seeing coronavirus restrictions have a devastating impact on their finances and so, in turn, the local amenities they can deliver.

“Centres like Halo’s have been losing income every day of lockdown while still covering the costs of maintaining and preparing buildings for the reopening.”

Commissioning, procurement and assets cabinet member Gemma Davies said they will continue to work with Halo to try and find a way to reopen the pools.

“It was great news that Halo were able to reopen their gyms and studios to customers in July, but due to the added complexity of ensuring social distancing and a lack of government funding to cover any shortfall, we fully understand why Halo must keep their pools closed for the time being,” she said.