Learning to swim

Councillor’s proposals for funded swimming lessons gains support

An Airdrie councillor has won support to reintroduce funding for school swimming lessons – and joined his party in calling for the decision to cut opening hours at the town’s pool to be overturned.

SNP representative Paul Di Mascio put forward a motion at last Thursday’s full council meeting acknowledging the importance of school swimming lessons in teaching water safety and life skills, and “actively [ encouraging] Nor th Lanarkshire Council to continue to fund Primary Five swimming lessons from the core budget”.

The Airdrie South representative saw his suggestion passed by 35 votes to 30 after Conservative councillors also backed the call; and he now expects pupils across North Lanarkshire to be making a splash back in the pool.

Party colleagues Neil Gray MP and Alex Neil MSP say the potential extra income involved in providing lessons for all pupils should mean that the reduction in opening hours at the John Smith pool, to take effect from next month, be abandoned.

The Advertiser told last week how swimming time at the Stirling Street pool is set to be cut by more than one third, from 88 hours per week to 54 – closing for a period on weekday afternoons and instead opening in the mornings and evenings, while the current weekend opening hours would be shortened.

Council leader Jim Logue, of Labour, had unsuccessfully put forward an amendment on the issue of swimming lessons, seeking to “await with interest the continuing discussions between the Scottish Government and Scottish Swimming, while recognising the increasing pressures on local authorities”.

Speaking to elected members, Councillor Di Mascio said: “Funding swimming lessons for all P5 pupils is huge and the importance of maintaining this cannot be ignored.

“North Lanarkshire has many areas of deprivation; we have historically had cases of P5 children who have had little or no exposure to the water, and these children are at a disadvantage in terms of their health and their personal safety, right now and as adults.

“Currently schools are instructed to find the money [ for swimming lessons] instead of it being provided through core funding – we have 65 school bookings for the swimming programme as opposed to 125 last year, meaning 2000 children throughout North Lanarkshire will not have the opportunity to learn this important skill.”

He told the Advertiser: “I’m absolutely delighted that other members saw fit to pass this, saving swimming lessons by reintroducing core funding as opposed to 50 per cent of schools finding it by themselves.

“That meant that half our schoolkids wouldn’t have received swimming lessons this term; we had the crazy situation where joint campuses had [one school] receiving swimming, whilst the other half were disadvantaged.

“I’m so pleased that school swimming will now continue for all P5 children and I’ve since been in touch with the chief executive of North Lanarkshire Leisure requesting they immediately re-visit their decision to reduce the pool hours as it’s a well- used facility.”

He added: “I’ve requested that local children receive lessons in their local pool, not out of town, and that the additional funding is used to make this happen; the focus now is on saving the pool opening hours.”

Mr Gray, the Airdrie MP, says reinstatement of swimming lessons would “bring in over £ 50,000 to the Airdrie pool [ and] should comfortably cover any costs” associated with opening times.

He said: “I am delighted that the council’s SNP group, backed by the Tory members, have been successful in getting P5 swimming reinstated; and now the main reason for the cut in hours has been taken out of the equation, there should be no need to change pool opening times.

“Cutting school swimming and opening hours was a strange decision given the fight against obesity.”

Airdrie Central councillor Logue said: “A reduction in pool hours will allow us to sustain the facility in the face of cuts to the council’s budget in recent years.”