More than 1,200 children are currently on a waiting list for beginner level swimming lessons in Dumfries and Annan.
The lengthy closure of the DG1 leisure centre for extensive repairs led to a backlog and the situation was exacerbated by the Covid crisis.
The Dumfries site currently provides lessons to 600 children a week and another 360 are taught at Annan Swimming Pool.
But the council concedes that it will take some time to reduce the backlog.
A council spokesman said: “Our waiting list expanded significantly due to the reduced capacity available to deliver lessons whilst we operated from the temporary swimming pool at Dumfries Ice Bowl and was then further exaggerated due to Covid closures.
“However, we continued to receive new enquiries for additional children to be added to the waiting list.
“Whilst we now have over 1,200 children on our DG1 waiting list due to the backlog, 33 per cent of the list are too young to be offered a lesson space at present.”
The waiting list at Annan has been cut from 124 to 57 over the last six months.
The spokesman added: “We have taken measures to try and get as many children into lessons as possible within our existing resources and available teaching complement.
“We are presently reviewing our swimming pool timetables to look at areas where we can increase the number of swimming lessons available but this would require a reduction in other public swimming times.
“Furthermore, during the summer holidays at DG1 and Annan, we ran intensive lesson blocks for those who have been on the list for a while and were able to accommodate each person into our swim scheme following the completion of their intensive lesson block.
“We also run a curriculum swimming programme across Dumfries and Galloway where every P4 pupil in the region is offered a 9 lesson swimming block. This helps to build water confidence and teaches children basic swimming skills.
“We have managed to complete a recent Swim Teaching Course post Covid, where across the region eight people successfully gained their swim teaching qualification in order to help all our sites have the staffing capacity to increase our lesson provision.”
The council is working closely with Scottish Swimming to see how they can encourage more people to choose to become a swimming teacher while changes to qualification criteria have eased the process for people.
The council spokesman said: “We would encourage anyone who is interested in becoming a swimming teacher to enquire at their local council leisure facility to find out more.
“At DG1 we do have a proposal to expand lessons to another evening. However, to do this we need to have not only the swim teaching staff trained and recruited but we also need additional lifeguarding staff to supervise the pool spaces.
“We are actively trying to recruit for lifeguarding and swim teaching positions currently but, as has been seen in leisure nationally, there has been a reduction in suitable applicants applying.
“We have similarly done this for swim teachers last year and are planning to do this again as soon as we have enough interested people and a course tutor for a swim teaching course.”
