Swimming pools 'need help if we want to still teach kids to swim'
It's claimed we're at a tipping point - and need to help save swimming pools or we'll lose them
The Swimming Teachers’ Association say because of rising energy and living costs The Government should reduce VAT to make them more affordable.
It is claimed a quarter of children leave primary school each year unable to swim and half of parents rely on schools to help teach their children.
At the start of October the swimming pool in South Molton closed due to increased costs.
At the time a spokesperson for 1610 Leisure Trust said 'it has not been able to make the pool a viable business in the current climate and can no longer sustain the increasing costs and losses the pool is making'
Debbie Stenning has spent 35 years as a swimming teacher and is campaigning to try to reopen South Molton Pool which closed at the start of last month.
In Buckfastleigh, 57 per cent of those polled in a referendum voted to increase local council tax to try and keep their local outdoor pool open - which is currently due to close in the New Year because of huge energy bills.
The Victoria Park charity, which runs the park and the swimming pool, says its energy costs are expected to rise to £36,000 in the next financial year, compared to around £8,000 in 2021/22.
Campaigner Pam Barrett is the chair of trustees
Dave Candler, Swimming Teachers’ Association CEO, told us why the government should make a special case for learn to swim teaching programmes, saying: “Swimming lessons are the only ‘sports’ activity that teaches a lifesaving skill and every child in the UK should be given the opportunity to access learn to swim lessons and be taught water safety skills because we live on an island and one day these lessons could save theirs or someone else’s life.
"Plus swimming uniquely offers physical, health and mental well-being benefits to people of all ages and abilities.
“However, unlike other sports, with swimming there are many physical and cost implications involved in teaching swimming.
"To run a swim school, you need to hire or build / maintain a pool and you need to employ professionally qualified teachers, all while trying to keep lessons affordable for customers.
"These barriers have been significantly amplified by the cost of living and energy bills crisis (pools have been hit hard), and thousands of swim schools across the country are therefore now in desperate need of extra support to be able to stay afloat – and to be in a position where they can continue to teach this key life skill at non ‘exorbitant’ prices.”
“This is why we have brought the UK private swim school community together, and are putting forward a positive business solution to the government that can immediately help the teaching of grassroots swimming lessons and the many thousands of learn to swim providers who parents rely on every week to teach their children how to swim because of the demise in school swimming.”