St John's Square water fountains remain dry as Blackpool enjoys one of the hottest summers

Water fountains at the heart of a much-heralded £3.5m revamp of St John’s Square have not been fully working for more than 18 months.

And now it has emerged the fountains have been removed from the site while engineers try to work out what the problem is.

The attraction in St John’s Square has been beset by technical problems for months leading to the latest development.

A Blackpool Council spokesman said: “There have been multiple technical issues with the fountains given their complex mechanics and engineering which we have tried to remedy on an ongoing basis.

“Those problems could not be fully resolved so we took the decision to remove the water fountains in July so that a comprehensive investigation could be undertaken.

“This is currently taking place and includes testing of equipment such as pumps, junction boxes and cables to identify any faulty components.

“We anticipate that the results will be available in August when we will review the findings and potential costs to the council to determine how best to proceed to bring the water features back into service.

“Until this has been completed we cannot confirm specific dates for the fountains to be switched back on.”

It comes as Blackpool enjoyed a bumper start to the 2018 season with both May bank holidays pulling in tens of thousands of tourists amid blue skies and warm temperatures.

The Met Office said it is likely to be among the top 10 hottest summers on record with Blackpool enjoying weeks of sunshine and temperatures in the mid 20s.

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They were unveiled to huge fanfare almost a decade ago when the Tory-led town hall said it wanted to make Blackpool the ‘third best shopping centre in the north west’.