Something of an aide memoire for Argyll and Bute Council and more ammunition on the Mid Argyll Swimming Pool Board’s belt. Don’t pack away the AK47s yet guys.
The Scottish Government has seen tracer fire outline its position, criticised roundly for the situation in the Highlands, with children waiting on lists for swimming lessons for periods from 3 months to 2 years.
Under pressure to provide free lessons for all young children, as is the case in England and Wales, the Government is quoted as saying that it: ‘firmly believed that young people should have the opportunity to take part in swimming’.
It pointed to its recent announcement of £5.5 million funding for the development of swimming pools and facilities in Fife and Tayside and an offer of provision of £5 million towards a new 50m pool in Aberdeen.
Liz Smith, the Conservatives’ Holyrood spokeswoman on children, schools and skills, said how important swimming is as an activity for young children: ‘… particularly at a time when the health of the nation is under such intense scrutiny, and it seems very unfair that some families are facing a two year wait.’
How long a wait will Mid Argyll families have to experience if the pool they paid to build – and to keep afloat in 2009, is allowed to close for lack of good strategic action, with all their efforts and their needs flushed into Loch Gilp when the pool is drained?
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