Children, parents and pensioners are all beaming after their first swims back at Shirley Pool.
“The water is so clear and everything seems new”, said Kate Baxter after her swim. Kate learnt to swim at Shirley as a child and went on to become an England Champion. Her current club can’t access training times as most pools remain closed, so she has been keeping her strokes together at Shirley. ” I’ve swum here a few times now, it’s good to be back” .
There were many other votes of confidence in the new design,
” It’s like a brand new pool” said Val Perry, original owner of the family business built back in 1974 .
Regular lane swimmers Deborah and Marion have been using the pool for over twenty years and have swum everyday since re-opening,
” The pool is wonderful, we are all so grateful. I feel safer here than the supermarket. It lends itself so well to the changes, no clutter, no doors, just straight into the pool”
Watch a series of short videos walking through the new designed pool.
Retiring owner Dave Perry is pleased with the response but cautious,
” This pool is unique. To my knowledge it is the only privately owned, purpose built teaching centre in the UK , but the circumstances could not be any more testing.We have survived the 1970’s oil crisis, several major recessions and two rebuilds, I’m confident we can safely fully reopen with the highest quality of teaching. But we need parents to come and try the pool for themselves to see how safe and clean it is.”
” Being independent gives us huge flexibility to adapt quickly. There is no way we can return to the huge numbers of swimmers that we had before. At one time there were over 2,000 babies, children and adults in classes every week. With only 4 in each class now, that number is going to be much smaller.”
Starting on Monday August 17th, customers are invited to try their new times for classes with the direct debits not restarting till September 1st.
The new Shirley Swimming Pool app will enable customers to confirm their swimming time and day.
Karon Bricknell The water really was perfect today. A great swim at lunchtime too 
Samantha WilliamsMy daughter did a crash course last week, can’t believe the progress she made. You’ve made the pool feel safe as well, was very happy 
Peter John Boustred Excellent set up, good work guys. So efficient and perhaps some of the changes may make sense in longer term
Becky Ward Yep. Can second this. It’s been brilliant for my daughter to get back in the pool and the care and thought to make it safe has been outstanding.
Zoe Birtle I felt very safe at adult lane swimming too
