Swimming pools have closed in about one in six UK areas since 2019, an investigation has discovered. Freedom of Information requests to councils nationwide found that 65 pools had shut, either temporarily or permanently, in the three years to March 2022.
Ukactive, an organisation which represents gyms and leisure centres, has blamed a shortage of staff, increasing energy costs and scarcity of chemicals. It says these factors have created a "perfect storm".
Greg Whyte, a board member at Ukactive, called the closures an "absolute health and welfare disaster". Meanwhile the body's chief executive Huw Edwards said "lives are at stake" if pools shut.
"Two million children learn to swim in our pools every year and leisure centres provide 66% of our cancer prehab and rehab services, which clearly shows that lives are at stake if they close," Mr Edwards told the BBC, which carried out the investigation. "Our members have laid out the evidence to the government, which now has a duty to support the survival of our gyms, pools and leisure centres through a package of financial and legislative measures that ensures their survival and growth."
Some pools had closed permanently, while others were being refurbished with no fixed date for reopening, the BBC found. Others are now only used for private hire or swimming clubs.
The places hardest hit were the West Midlands and Scotland, where eight pools had closed in each area. Responses were received from 360 local authorities out of 374 in the UK; at the time, 1,335 publicly-funded pools were open, while some have opened since March.
Gerald Vernon-Jackson, chair of the Local Government Association's Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said: "Public leisure facilities are disproportionately relied on by those on lower incomes. Councils are working incredibly hard to prevent centres from closing, and understand that many people are facing rising individual costs, so have no desire to increase prices if it can be avoided."
But rising energy costs could affect whether new facilities are opened, he said. A spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Sport and Media said: "The government has provided an unprecedented £1bn of public money to ensure the survival of the grassroots, professional sport and leisure sectors.
"This includes the £100m National Leisure Centre Recovery Fund which secured the survival and reopening of more than 1,100 swimming pools all over the country. On top of this Sport England, the government's funding agency, has provided over £8.5m to swimming and diving projects, and over £16m to Swim England since 2017."
