John Harris rightly draws attention to the public health value of swimming pools (The story of Britain’s pools and leisure centres is one of neglect, decay and the lies of levelling up, 15 January), but he might also have mentioned the potential of natural bodies of water and the scandals that prevent greater use of them for swimming. The London conurbation, for example, includes chains of lakes, many of which are suitable for swimming, as well as former docks and stretches of the Thames and other rivers that between them could provide far more swimming opportunities than open air pools ever have.
The main barrier in the case of the rivers is the dumping of sewage, which may require investment to fix – but that investment is essential for other environmental reasons anyway. In the case of the lakes and docks, the main barrier is simply that landowners – public authorities as well as private landlords – either ban swimming or permit it only in designated areas, often during restricted hours and with significant entry fees.
The situation is repeated all over the country: stretches of water could provide free swimming, but access is denied. What is needed here is not huge public expenditure, but political will.
Margaret Dickinson
London
• John Harris is right to point to the demise of the country’s public swimming pools and associated leisure centres. I would question the need to heat outdoor pools in Devon between May and September, in particular the pool he mentions in Buckfastleigh, currently costing £26,000 a year to heat. In May 1945, at the age of 11, I had swimming lessons in an unheated pool opposite our school at Hoylake. I believe that very few, if any, public pools were heated at that time.
Were we tougher in those times? Perhaps we were – but maybe this current financial climate presents an opportunity to toughen up again – and set about enjoying a full summer of unheated outdoor swimming.
Donald Rigg
Totnes, Devon
• John Harris reminds me of an occasion in the 1980s when we in Gateshead were favoured with a ministerial visit. This was an opportunity for a cabinet minister to see how we were using the money that Margaret Thatcher’s government was generously allowing us to borrow.
He was accompanied by a junior minister, whose appointment had raised eyebrows owing to his well-known rightwing views. He had no official role that day and so floated around talking to people, including local councillors such as me. He gave us the benefit of his views, which differed somewhat from the approved party line. Gateshead, he said, was suffering from a disease called “leisure-centre-itis”. He was unimpressed, clearly, by the “pools, gyms and squash courts” that John Harris mentions.
That MP is still around, interviewed from time to time as one of the voices from the government backbenches. I’m guessing that he is not viewing the imminent threat to Gateshead’s leisure facilities with much concern.
Paul Tinnion
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
• John Harris is right to highlight the “terrifying stupidity” of the government’s policy of allowing publicly accessible swimming pools to close, while subsidising the “hospitality” industry. He could also have mentioned the 20% VAT that it levies on children’s swimming lessons and public admissions.
David Perry
Shirley swimming pool, Southampton
