A CONSTRUCTION worker claims he fractured his neck working on the redevelopment of a Hampshire swimming pool hit by a two-month delay.

Robert Jones told the Daily Echo he fell two metres onto concrete as there were no safety barriers in place around the swimming pool at Applemore Health and Leisure Centre near Hythe.

It comes as campaigners are demanding to know why the £665,000 pool project is set to open nine-weeks later than planned.

Mr Jones, 25, said he has been unable to work for a month as a result of fracturing his C3 neck bone and constantly wears a neck brace.

He said he was working for the Southampton-based contractors PTC, which is carrying out the refurbishment, when the incident happened on September 23.

The father-of-three said his partner Shannon Lamb, 21, has had to shave him and aid him with every day basics.

He said: “I started there as an agency worker before getting taken on full time, but the job has been slow and there has been problem after problem with it. There is a channel on the outside of the pool and my foot slipped into it. Where they were no safety barriers up to protect the pool, I fell in sideways and fell onto my head.

“I knocked myself out and I can’t remember much of it, but I came round and moved myself to the side of the pool.”

Mr Jones said his GP assessed his injury and sent him to Lymington Minor Injury Unit.

But nurses there immediately strapped him down onto a stretcher and sent him to Southampton General Hospital, where he was kept in overnight.

He discharged himself the next day but Mr Jones added he was rushed back after his back went numb and he had agonising pain in his arms.

Mr Jones said the injury has put pressure on looking after his young children, Paige, five, Nia, four, and Darcey-Leigh, 11 weeks, and he doesn’t know when he will be able to return to work.

“I am waiting for the results of an MRI scan to determine whether my spine is stable or not,” Mr Jones added.

“I have to wear the collar constantly. It has messed up my family life and is putting pressure on it.”

As reported, members of the Liberal Democrat opposition group on New Forest District Council called for answers over why the project is so far behind schedule.

The issue was raised at a council meeting by Cllr Malcolm Wade, who described the closure as causing “inconvenience and disruption” to local people, including schools that use the pool.

PTC, which is carrying out the refurbishment, declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Echo.