An end to the free swim for kids and over 60's

jamespir

in my pool children have to pay 1.00 to get in but get in free in the school hols

margaretclare

Margaretclare we have free swimming any time of the day here I don't understand why they need to restrict the times?

Could be because of schools needing it during the day.

Katiehound

The govt funded scheme was due to run until the end of this financial year.
At my local pool nearly all the early morning swimmers are concessions.Most of them are doing quite a distance- I did half a mile yesterday! To be truthful I think most of us would be willing to pay a modest amount but I suspect the new fees will be quite high. This is the one perk that I actually use, living in a rural area I don't find the buses that wonderful!
Can we petition anyone?? NHS?

lightisfading

Katiehound wrote: »

The govt funded scheme was due to run until the end of this financial year.
At my local pool nearly all the early morning swimmers are concessions.Most of them are doing quite a distance- I did half a mile yesterday! To be truthful I think most of us would be willing to pay a modest amount but I suspect the new fees will be quite high. This is the one perk that I actually use, living in a rural area I don't find the buses that wonderful!
Can we petition anyone?? NHS?

I think they should continue with free swimmng for over-60s, however with limited times. In my town we have one small pool with extremely limited times due to school lessons. Basically free swim outside of 9-5 working hours is 7.30-9 in the morning, and 2 evening sessions each week. As such I pay to swim before work, and the pool is CRAMMED with OAPs who could swim during the lunchtime / afternoon sessions for free as well. But, as is normal, people who work 9-5 on low incomes have to pay full whack for everything, if it's even available when they're not at work.

Farway

roddydogs wrote: »

The over 60 free was optional to the councils.....a lot of councils said they couldnt afford it (mine) It was not a universal freebie.

Mine never did it either, so makes no differance to me either way

tanith

margaretclare wrote: »

Could be because of schools needing it during the day.

Yes I see what you mean, I guess I am lucky in that not only having a choice of at least 4 local pools but the one I regularly use is Olympic size (can be separated into two smaller pools) and also a large shallow pool for littlies... they merely have to section off a quarter of each pool for school use so that the whole of the rest of all the pools is free for anyone to use... we are lucky we have so much space I guess..

I am still mad though....:rotfl:but I guess I knew it was coming...

GEEGEE8

My local pool did this and I must admit I found it annoying because it the 8am-9am session it was full of over 60's and I just couldn't swim without stopping every 1/4 length..

My grandma started swimming again regularly this year because it was free, so I'm a bit gutted for her.

I will be interested to see if there are as many over 60's in the pool from now on as I may go back if not.

tanith

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

My local pool did this and I must admit I found it annoying because it the 8am-9am session it was full of over 60's and I just couldn't swim without stopping every 1/4 length..

My grandma started swimming again regularly this year because it was free, so I'm a bit gutted for her.

I will be interested to see if there are as many over 60's in the pool from now on as I may go back if not.

GEEGEE do they not separate some of the pool into lanes for those who wish to swim lengths? thats what they do at our pools they have fast, medium and slow lanes for the differing speed of lane swimmers , a quarter for schools and the rest for those who just want to do their own thing... it works perfectly.. except in the holidays when I avoid the place altogether unless I can go early morning when all the lovely kiddies are still asleep:rotfl:

GEEGEE8

Afraid not no

Not saying everyone is like it, but come 8:30am all of the over 60's would clog up the shallow end chatting, so you couldn't even get to do a full length lol..

I'm sure not everybody is like that though

bristol_pilot

Good. I see plenty of over-60s living in large houses, driving around in Mercs, on good salaries etc yet they get free swims, bus passes and winter heating fuel allowance etc. One over-60 I know lives abroad in the tropics but still gets his winter heating allowance! It's really about time this profligate spending by the previous govt was put to an end. Those who use a service should pay for it. Simples.