Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Free Swimming in Haringey to end in September
A sign of the times.
It has been announced that Government funding for free swimming has been withdrawn from July 31. As a result, the Council has decided that that free swimming for Haringey residents who are 60 and over and 16 and under is to end in the autumn.
From September, Haringey residents who are 65 and over will continue to be able to swim for free from Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm if they have registered through the Active Card Scheme.
Children under three will also swim free of charge.
Finally under the Haringey school swimming programme children aged 9,10 and 11 who swim 50m front crawl and 50m back crawl will receive a book of swimming tickets for up to 50 free swims.
No new registrations for free swimming will be processed after August 6.
It has been announced that Government funding for free swimming has been withdrawn from July 31. As a result, the Council has decided that that free swimming for Haringey residents who are 60 and over and 16 and under is to end in the autumn.
From September, Haringey residents who are 65 and over will continue to be able to swim for free from Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm if they have registered through the Active Card Scheme.
Children under three will also swim free of charge.
Finally under the Haringey school swimming programme children aged 9,10 and 11 who swim 50m front crawl and 50m back crawl will receive a book of swimming tickets for up to 50 free swims.
No new registrations for free swimming will be processed after August 6.
Tags for Forum Posts: public spending cuts, sport and leisure, swimming
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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said Hugh Robertson, minister for sport and the Olympics. (you forgot to source the quote Will)
It also says "figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport show that for the 16 and under category, there were almost 50% more new swimmers (and 5.52m extra swims) since the scheme's introduction. A spokeswoman played down the significance of these figures today, saying it included adults who had paid to accompany new swimmers. (wow revenue!)
Were they all middle class kids? What about those ones you had issue with at the Tottenham pools?
Anyway it's gone, we aren't going to get it back but these issues are always far more complex than just handouts/middle class subsidies/election sweetners, I think.
Let's hope this government don't apply all those arguments about sops to the middle classes about public libraries next...
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Was having a fairly nice day until i read this thread
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Lots of interesting questions in this thread. Like:
● Was free swimming a good idea? And if so why? (This was to be a two-year programme in the run-up to the Olympics.)
● What were the views not just of the political parties but key organisations such as Sport England and Help the Aged?
● Was the initiative measured and evaluated ─ and did it work?
● Was local authority and private sector money 'matched' to the Government funds?
● If it attracted more paying customers - e.g. parents as well as children - could it be continued even on a small scale?
● What happened to money given to local councils to refurbish some pools?
And so on. An internet search can often locate documents and news reports which help us reach an informed conclusion. (Provided, of course that this is what we actually want.) So thanks, Liz, for the 'starter' links to the Guardian article and others. Here are a few more which curious questioners might like to look at:
§ BBC June 2008 - Swimming to be a 2012 Legacy
§ BBC June 2010 - Free swims to be axed.
§ PricewaterhouseCoopers Evaluation Report June 2010.
§ Brighton Argus report.
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Thanks Alan. I just knew they'd made a link two years ago between over-60s' free swimming and the 2012 legacy. Did Jowell & Coe hope that all of us whose hearts give out suddenly at the deep end would have already remembered them gratefully in our wills?
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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This is all about swimming for leisure. What about swimming for health? As a layabout, I was just beginning to get tempted by the idea of trying out swimming, as a first step towards living for ever. I know that would make me A Drain On The State, but at least I'd be a fit one.
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Pam, the Brighton Argus Report was just one example where health was the main issue for continued funding - in that case from the local Primary Care Trust. (Though PCTs won't have money for long. And with the cataclysmic restructuring of health services currently proposed, they won't exist.)
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IIRC you can get a prescription for free swimming. That's the way I'll have to go now. How much does 5 minutes with my GP cost the NHS?
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