WORK has started on a £50,000 improvement scheme that aims to ensure a popular paddling pool opens in the summer.

Parents were left fuming last year after the 50-year-old facility failed to meet the latest health and safety standards and was kept closed during the holidays.

Now contractors have begun to install an automatic chlorination and filtration system that will enable the paddling pool at Testwood Recreation Ground in Totton to comply with the new regulations.

As reported by the Daily Echo, the amount of water in the 75,000-litre pool is being reduced by 40 per cent to cut the cost of the upgrade.

Critics have turned to social media to voice their anger and dismay at the large reduction in volume.

Christine Meriott said: “It’s absolute disgrace that the pool is being made smaller by 40-per-cent – looks more like half. There are already too many people crammed in there on hot days.”

But civic chiefs say the facility will still be one of the largest paddling pools in the region.

Outlining the changes needed town clerk Derek Biggs said it would be 15ft shorter, with a island in the middle and sloping ends that would make it easier for disabled people to get in and out.

He added: “It will bring the volume of water down to the amount we can treat without having to install a hugely expensive system.

“However, the facility will not look that much smaller. It will still be one of the biggest paddling pools in the south and significantly larger than the one at nearby Hanger Farm.”

The pool is due reopen in time for the school summer holidays, which start in July.

Almost all the work is being paid for by the council, which saved money by as a result of not being able to operateoperating the pool last summer.

But £7,500 has been collected by locals, who launched a fundraising campaign ten months ago with the help of two councillors, Neville Penman and Samantha Churn, after the authority originally said it was unable to finance the improvements itself.

The pool used to be manually chlorinated but the council was told the practice was no longer acceptable and kept it shut last summer.

Cllr David Harrison said: “New regulations mean you have to have an automatic filtration system. This bumps up the cost considerably.”