Borehamwood's troubled swimming pool will remain closed outside daylight hours until January at the earliest.

The lights at the £18million leisure centre's pool were switched off more than eight months ago, and since then mobile floodlights have been used after dark.

But during a recent visit, an independent health and safety expert told the centre's owner and operator, Hertsmere Borough Council, that he had "major concerns" over the use of floodlights.

Joe Feely, from the Hertsmere Flyers Swimming Club, agreed: "You can't see other swimmers when the temporary lights are on. In a race, if a swimmer is blinded by those lights, he will use his head to stop."

Mr Feely said he was shocked to hear that the pool was to be closed yet again, but supported the council's decision to put customers' safety first.

"You can't run a pool like that those lights were dangerous," he said. But he added that swimming clubs would be unable to train, and would therefore be unable to charge full membership fees.

He said the Hertsmere Flyers already faced financial difficulties as a result of price rises since the old pool was demolished and the new Venue opened in 1999.

Eden Lee, Hertsmere Council's executive director, said work would be carried out during the pool's closure to fix the faulty lighting system.

No information has been released on what originally went wrong with the system, how much it will cost to fix it, or whether the council will sue to get the money back.

The lights first went wrong 20 months ago, in March 2000, when an electrical explosion forced one of the basketball-sized light fittings out of the ceiling, and it fell into the shallow end of the pool. Nobody was hurt, but the council spent £35,000 to fix the lights.

After another fault in March 2001 the council switched off the lights permanently, and since then The Venue has been losing thousands in revenue, and Hertsmere has announced plans to claim at least £40,000 on its insurance policy to cover the losses.

Elstree councillor Morris Bright, who is in charge of leisure policy, said: "This whole situation is shameful. The council's officers have worked as hard as they can to bring the matter to a conclusion, but became tangled up, trying to find out whose fault it is."

He said it would cost a "substantial amount of money" to fix the lights, and added: "Why should the council have to fork out more tax payers' money when it's not our fault?"

This week a spokeswoman from Borehamwood-based Reggiani Lighting, the system's supplier, said the system had been installed by the council's contractors, although she was unable to say at what point it had gone wrong.

The Venue's architects, Newcastle-based FaulknerBrowns, refused to comment on the leisure centre's continuing problems.