It is deeply disappointing that Boris Johnson has made no clear indication in Parliament this afternoon about the reopening of swimming pools in England, despite announcing that pubs, restaurants, cinemas and even hairdressers can open.
Today, we all anticipated there would be positive news and that we would all be looking forward to making plans to reopen post 4th July.
“To say today’s announcement is extremely frustrating for everyone involved in swimming would be an understatement; not only in terms of the financial consequences for swimming pool operators and swim schools, but the impact it will have on participants not being able to access lessons and learn a key life skill.” said Dave Chandler, CEO STA
The STA are looking to actively work with all the major bodies involved in leisure to take action and lobby the government for further clarity and guidance on the reopening of swimming pools.
In support, as a first step, they have started an official petition so that we can hopefully reach an even wider public community – please sign and share far and wide …
OPEN SHIRLEY POOL!
Sign the Swim England petition
The Shirley Pool has been “mothballed” since March and all activities stopped since the government directive due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Staff have been developing the plan for re-opening to comply with regulations. With advice from the two governing bodies of swimming, Swim England and STA, a one way system has evolved in order to enable dry change and wet change areas; the reception has been gutted and a new, smaller front desk installed; new software has been purchased to enable on line enrolment and booking make up lessons; teachers have been busy designing a new teaching plan to avoid manual handling and the Big Red Bus is now converted to a take away.
Shirley pool is confident it can continue to deliver wonderful teaching in a safe and comfortable environment. We will just have to wait until we are told it is safe to welcome back swimmers.
Looks like September opening now…