'Get off our young swimmers' backs'

As reported last week, the anonymous complainant said: “Non-swimming club members are crammed in to two or three lanes and are constantly bumping in to one another.” He suggested that the swimming club should use the pool in off-peak hours.

In response to the claim that giving over part of the pool to the club was “ruining swimming” for everyone else, Larne Borough Council said in future it would “be sticking rigidly” to an arrangement that club members would have no more than three lanes for their evening sessions.

Club chairman Paul Douglas told the Larne Times that sessions were also held at Belfast Royal Academy and at Antrim Forum because it was not possible to accommodate all 170 members at Larne where, he added, only 18 per cent of pool time was taken up by the club, which paid “full whack” and was a major contributor to the success of the facility.

One parent who phoned us said: “The person who is complaining seems to be taking no account of all the good that is being done by the club, which is cross-community and gives young people the benefit of top-level sport and fitness training and a social network that keeps them off the streets.

“I get the impression this is the sort of person who would grumble about teenagers hanging around and here they are engaged in something healthy. And yet they’re still complaining.”

She added: “These young people are working hard at their sport, representing Larne and their country at competitions. There are members of the 2012 Olympics and Commonwealth Games squads and several who swim at Ulster and Ireland level. That takes a lot of coaching and training and dedication and they don’t deserve to be criticised for it.”

Another parent said Larne Swimming Club did all it could to avoid impinging on other pool users: “On Wednesday nights the pool is given over entirely to the club and it has been that way for years. It’s one of the reasons the town has a Division 1 swimming club.

“Sessions are also held at times when the public are unlikely to want to use the facilities - 6.00-8.00am on Fridays, Saturdays between 7.00-9.00am and Sundays from 8.00-10.00am,” she explained.

“The club also has access to up to three lanes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, for which it pays the going rate, and has sessions at BRA and Antrim as well. It’s a sign of a thriving club and surely that is something that the public and the council should be supporting.

“I’m delighted my two teenage children are members of the swimming club. Not only are they doing something that is good for their health and keeping them fit and active, but they are also involved in charity work. It gives them goals and they socialise with friends they have met through the club.

“People complain about children being couch potatoes: please don’t complain about these young people, who are anything but,” the parent appealed.