Access equipment boost for town pool
NEW equipment at Hinckley Leisure Centre is ensuring patrons with mobility limitations can take full advantage of pool fun quickly and easily.
The £16,000 pool pod offers an independent means of getting into the water using an automatic platform or specially designed submersible wheelchair.
Users can obtain a wristband from reception to access the machinery.
It’s a major improvement on the previous method which involved a hoist operated by a carer or member of staff.
After its installation in January the equipment is already popular with children from Hinckley’s Dorothy Goodman School who swim there every week.
Student Mayan Tailor, aged 14, said: “It was a great way to get into the pool, I liked how it helped my friends in wheelchairs get in and out without needing lots of help from the teachers. It was also fun to be lowered into the pool.”
Dorothy Goodman headteacher, Janet Thompson, said: “The pod is a great addition to the facilities at Hinckley Leisure Centre as it enables our young people to enter and leave the pool with dignity and ease.
“Sometimes it can take several staff members to lower a student into the pool from their wheelchair. The pod makes the transition into the pool easy, allowing our young people to spend more time doing what they love, swimming.”
Gary Healy, the swim development manager from Places for People Leisure, said: “We are so lucky to have this new piece of equipment in our pool. It is a great support for our customers including those with a disability, reduced mobility and even encourages our ageing population and pregnant women to feel safer accessing the pool.”
As well as the pool pod, the new centre already boasts a number of accessible changing rooms and showering facilities.