COMMITTEE members and volunteers will be undertaking some serious ‘hard graft’ to fix the damage caused at a community pool in West Devon, after it was affected by the weekend’s flooding.

Chagford Pool, a river-fed outdoor pool on the outskirts of the town, has been left covered in sludge and debris after the nearby River Teign burst its banks, following a deluge of rain fall on Saturday.

The water came in fast flooding the road and car park by lunchtime and breaking the flood boards meaning water was able to get into the pool and the buildings. The changing rooms were left full of silt, the drains had backed up and water had seeped into the plant room and tea shed.

A spokesperson for the committee said: ‘It’s an outside pool by the river so we have big boards and sandbags we put out whenever the river gets high. For most of the day on Saturday the current was flowing round the car park.

‘Unfortunately one of the boards snapped and the water got in. It went into the pool, the tea shed — luckily we managed to get the fridges up on chairs in time — and in the changing rooms the drains backed up. The water covered a third of the site from the shallow end.

‘We don’t know yet if there is any damage to the base of the pool from the gravel and dirt that swept in with the tide.’

The car park was left quite damaged and now has a large gully running through it.

The committee also had a large pile of chippings it was given to cover the car park with, which was planned for the spring, but the pile was swept away with the tide.

A video was put up on the pool’s Facebook page of the flooding on Saturday and by Tuesday (as the Times went to press) it had over 60,000 views.

‘It is going to take lots of hard work from the committee and local volunteers to fix it,’ said the spokesperson. ‘We are always short of funds and it takes a lot of hard work by people who are passionate about the pool to keep it running.’

The committee is due to meet soon to decide a course of action.

Elsewhere in the area the West Okement River burst its banks near Okehampton Castle, water was overflowing in Simmons Park and water from the leat in South Zeal Recreation Ground made a footbridge impassable.

For more pictures of the flooding in West Devon, see this week’s Times.