The new mayor of Redcar and Cleveland has made a splash at his local swimming pool.

Councillor Eric Jackson, a keen swimmer, officiated at the reopening of the pool at Loftus yesterday. To celebrate, there was free swimming for everyone all day and users will be able to use the facilities for 50p this weekend.

Centre manager John Dobson said: "The pool is now open after a five-month closure to replace filtration equipment. We have also introduced the latest state of the art ultra violet disinfecting system to replace the redundant and inefficient ozone plant."