Emergency pool timetable call to help swimming club stay afloat

PERTH City Swim Club has urged the operators of the area’s pool facilities to devise an emergency timetable which will help protect the group’s future.

The club has been backed by the head of Scottish Swimming as it tries to survive the loss of its main training base for more than a year.

Club president Carol McPartland attended a meeting with Live Active Leisure (LAL) on Monday after temporary replacements for damaged Perth Leisure Pool were ruled out on Sunday night.

Perth Leisure Pool has been ruled out of action until September due to flood damage and the club’s management have been desperately trying to secure alternative facilities.

Carol said: “As a club, we have been doing everything we can to get our swimmers back in the water after a disastrous year.

“We have put forward a number of innovative possible options to LAL but all of these have been ruled out, so we need to look again at what the best solution is.

“We are urging LAL to bring forward a revised timetable which takes account of the travel involved and the age of our swimmers.

“At the moment, our swimmers – who are all under 18 – are having limited training and a large part of it is taking place late on midweek evenings.

“We would urge LAL to work as hard as they can on finding more pool time and bringing the sessions forward to ease the burden on these children.”

Euan Lowe, Scottish Swimming chief executive officer, said: “The loss of Perth Leisure Pool is a real blow to the local swimming club and the wider community.

“Pools not only help children to be confident in and around water, but are vital community resources in our armoury to fight Covid-19 by improving the mental and physical health of the nation.”

The club’s 92 swimmers have been training at Kinross. They had also been attending Stirling prior to it being locked down, and Kilgraston School, which has also closed temporarily to non-school pupils.

Carol held a Zoom meeting with LAL director of operational services Gary Watson, and he confirmed the construction reinstatement programme is under way at Perth Leisure Pool.

Further survey works are being carried out and the team working on repairing the pool are hoping to start a full strip out of the damaged pool by the end of the year.