A SPORTS centre hit by electrical faults will remain closed almost three weeks after fears were raised for the public's safety.

A problem found with a fire alarm at Glaxo Sports Club that was expected to take two days to repair has spiralled into almost three weeks of work.

After initial assessments were made, a larger problem was found in the building's electrical system, meaning the centre had to be closed.

The closure has left gym users and sports teams wondering what work is taking place, and for how long their club in North Lonsdale Road will be out of action.

Pat McIver, project director at GSK, said: "Initially we thought it would only have to be closed for two days. We had a problem with our fire alarm, the fire detection system wasn't working. For that reason we couldn't have the building occupied. We took our fire team's advice and thought that we would have to close the site."

Sports teams and users of the club have felt left down by what they feel was a lack of communication by GSK.

A small sign was placed in the door of the club, but only gave speculative information on when it would reopen.

On club user, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "There are no updates, they put a sign on the door."

GSK has acknowledged the inconvenience which has been caused to the numerous teams, but said safety was its top priority.

Mr McIver said: "In terms of communication and updates, people can look at the GSK Sports and Social Club Facebook page. We communicate via email for staff and club members.

"In terms of impact on planned activities it's a difficult one. We have to place safety first but the Glaxo Sports and Social Club team will work with the various teams on how to manage the impact.

"It's important for us to get the problem resolved as quickly as we can, it's had an impact on our staff, community users and the clubs that we house."

The building has been without power since the initial fault was found in order for crews to carry out the work in safety.

Mr McIver said: "Since then we've managed to do repairs on the system, but the main problem was an electrical fault. We had to isolate all power to the building. We now have a team working on that fault and are trying to resolve it.

"We can't give people a definitive date to reopen but we have all the resources we need to get it back up and running."

A generator is scheduled to be installed today, meaning the club will have power and hot water for the first time in two weeks.

Mr McIver said the work is "coming along" and, provided there were no snags, the club could be partly reopened by this weekend.

The club have advised the public to stay up to date by following its social media platforms.

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