The Fight Continues To Save Free Child Swimming

Medway Liberal Democrats are continuing to pressure Medway Council to reinstate free child swimming in Medway. On the 26th March we attended a Overview & Scrutiny meeting, where we asked our petition to be discussed.

We once again made the case that free child swimming was in a unique position where a full paying adult still attends along with the child. Therefore, there is a strong chance that the Council could end up losing more money than it would save. We repeated our findings that over the last 2 years, an average of 10420 children used a free pass, and so would only create a saving of around £54,000. Yet if any more than 40% of those children no longer attend with a single adult, then the council would lose more than it saves in lost revenue. We then asked what analysis was done by the Council on the potential loss of revenue by cancelling the free child swimming.

During the then discussion by council members, it was agreed that the council officers would send members and us copies of the analysis to show what assumptions were made before making the final decision. Sadly, a recommendation to send this issue back to Council’s leadership for further consideration was voted down by the Medway Labour Party group.

Stuart Bourne, our lead petitioner for our campaign, said ‘I’m deeply disappointed that Medway Labour voted down the recommendation for this to be sent back to the cabinet. They claimed that the issue had already been discussed, however that was about free swimming for children and over 60s, not focused just on child swimming. I do, however, look forward to receiving the council’s analysis on the potential loss of revenue and the assumptions they made.’

Once the Council’s report has been given to us, we will share its findings with the public so that they can judge whether the council made the right decision. The Medway Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for every child in Medway to have the opportunity to learn to swim and get healthy exercise in our council pools

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