In September 2021 Swim England published a report ‘A Decade of Decline: The Future of Swimming Pools in England’ which warned that, without major investment, up to 2000 swimming pools could be closed in the next 10 years.
Swim England recommend that the Government makes £1 billion available for local authorities to upgrade their swimming facilities, and calls on Councils to undertake a full assessment of their swimming pools to establish what investment they need to survive and thrive in the future.
The full Swim England report and recommendations can be found here.
ALDC have produced a campaign pack to support you to campaign on this issue in your local area.
Please note Swim England’s campaign focuses on the many pools that were built several decades ago and are coming to the end of their lifespan, as well as the 23% of Council Areas that currently do not have enough public swimming facilities.
You should research whether pools in your area fall into these categories, and also whether your Council already has plans to refurbish it’s pools or build new ones, before running this campaign.
It’s also important to note that though Swim England’s report focuses on English Swimming Pools, this campaign is completely applicable to Wales and Scotland too.
You can find a template Council Motion calling for the actions Swim England recommend here.
A template Press Release can also be found here.
Some Drop-in Articles for use in your local leaflet can be found here (PDF files here), as well as an A4 Special Petition Leaflet here (PDF here).
