The opening of a new Birmingham swimming pool has been delayed for 18 months after the old building was found to be riddled with deadly asbestos.
Contractors demolishing the old Sparkhill Pool have found the poisonous material was used extensively throughout the building - meaning the new leisure centre will not be open until spring 2017.
It means the work has stopped several times since August 2014 to allow specialist contractors to decontaminate the site.
But now the City Council’s Labour cabinet has given the go ahead to begin work on the pool,
one of six being built in Birmingham in a £36 million investment in leisure centres .
Planning permission for the new building was approved in February.
Cabinet member for contracts Stewart Stacey (Lab, Acocks Green) said: “Sparkhill Pool is not going as predicted.
“As happens with many older buildings, the asbestos was much, much worse than anyone thought it would be and more than was visible when the contract was signed.”
He explained the demolition has been a slow process as the contractors had to make sure one area was fully decontaminated before moving on to the next and finding more.