Open high school pools to swimmers

Jul 17 2008

Sir,– I was pleased that Councillor MacPherson, portfolio holder for community and housing strategy, wrote to this paper (July 2) in response to concerns about ongoing swimming provision within the council area.

Councillor MacPherson tells us how successfully arrangements have been made for the members of the various swimming clubs. This is indeed good news for the 300 swimmers concerned and we trust that ongoing efforts to reprovision the 600 or so children left without swimming lessons will bear fruit. This latter figure came from information provided by the council following a freedom of information request.

However, we are still left with all members of the public left without any local provision in local pools. As is well known, Stirling Council has control of school pools in the area, at least three of which – Bannockburn High School, Stirling High School and Wallace High School – could be used for public swimming.

A number of people have remarked to me that Councillor MacPherson has avoided answering my main question to him: why are these school pools not being opened to the public during the school holidays? To this I would now add: why not open them after the school holidays? Some early mornings? Some evenings? At weekends?

I, like many others, am genuinely puzzled that the local school pools remain closed for public swimming sessions.

What are local councils for if not to provide local services? Surely public swimming provision is an important part of such provision. Yours, etc.

COLIN WOOD

Stirling