Wollongong City Council staff fronted a community meeting in Thirroul this week, telling residents the ‘‘magnitude and complexity’’ of the work continued to be a problem.

The pool has been closed since June for repairs to the sea wall and walls of the pools, which were originally estimated to be reopened by the end of September.

Last month, this date was pushed back to the end of November, with council saying it hoped to have the pools up and running for the start of the busy summer swimming season.

But on Tuesday, project development manager Pas Silveri told residents he had asked the contractors for another ‘‘revised timetable’’ for the works.

He said he had asked for projections for the whole project, as well as a plan to complete just the northern or toddlers pool ‘‘as soon as possible’’.

‘‘In addition to the works as a whole, I have also asked [the contractor] to provide us with the remaining works that need to be undertaken ... to complete the northern pool first,’’ he said.

‘‘[This would have] the objective of seeing if we can reopen the northern pool as early as possible... and hand that back to the community while the remaining works are undertaken.’’

Mr Silveri said one of the main problems with the work was a cavity in the wall separating the two pools, which has turned out to be bigger and harder to work on than expected.

He said the cavity was having a ‘‘blowhole effect’’ on any concrete poured, and needed an extremely low tide before the work could be done.

‘‘That obviously increased the size of the project, and the magnitude and complexity of how we fix the problem,’’ Mr Silveri said.

‘‘It goes without saying the delivery of the project is heavily depended on ocean conditions being available, so we are heavily constrained on when this can occur.

‘‘We understand your disappointment, we’re frustrated as well but the best thing we can do is keep you up to date.’’

He said the council hoped to advise residents of a new completion date on its website later this week.