Down pool may be hired out for private events

Down pool may be hired out for private events

19 August 2015

DOWNPATRICK swimming pool may be made available for private hire for the first time.

The council is recommending hiring out the leisure centre pool for £153 per hour as part of a pledge to allow the use of its facilities outside normal working hours.

This would be the first time the local pool would be available for private parties with the cost including the service of three council lifeguards.

The council has also committed to almost doubling its provision of public group lessons next month in a bid to reduce the waiting list for places following a controversial ban on private group tuition imposed in June.

The changes were recommended on Monday evening at the council’s Active and Healthy Communities Committee in response to a public furore over a clamp down on private swimming lessons announced by the new Newry Mourne and Down Council at the end of March.

There was a huge public backlash at that time when the council announced it intended to ban private group lessons and increase the charges for commercial one-to-one tuition.

Although the council eventually agreed to allow one-to-one lessons to continue without a significant price hike, it did persist with its ban on group lessons at the end of June leading to concerns about a burgeoning waiting list for places for the council’s own programme.

That is why the council has now pledged to almost double its own group lessons in the coming weeks, increasing its provision from 249 children to 452 per week. As a result, officers predict the Downpatrick waiting list will fall to just 10 people.

Council director Michael Lipsett said it was the council’s intention to make sure as many children as possible become safe in the water in a short timeframe.

He conceded that the council’s new swimming programme, governed by the Swimming Teachers’ Association, would not cater for elite swimmers and said that would remain the responsibility of swimming clubs.

“The council’s role is to get as many people swimming as safely as possible,” he said.