It's all going swimmingly?

It means an all-night sit out in her car while she waits the call to register Molly for her six-week course which breaks down to a half-hour's lesson every Thursday afternoon.

In December, Claire-Ann and countless other parents had to endure the freezing conditions waiting for the Centre to open early morning. On that occasion she was there from around 2 a.m. and last Friday night - six weeks later - she arrived around the same time to register again and didn't get home until 8.30 a.m.

The way in which the selection procedure is adopted is a frustration to Claire-Ann and countless others, she told the Times.

"There's no other way to do it. We have to queue at the Centre and wait until our names are called out and then we can get on with it, but it certainly plays havoc with your sleep.

"I am working and when I have to go to the Centre to re-register Molly, it means a lost night's sleep," Claire-Ann said.

The mother of two said she understood that there were no such problems at Coleraine Leisure Centre and wondered why Ballymoney adopted their procedure.

She said there were between 20 and 30 cars at the Centre last Friday night/Saturday morning occupied by families registering their children for swimming lessons.

In response, Paul Lyness, Head of Leisure Services explained: “We are aware of the situation and the great demand we have for swimming lessons. However we can not stop people from queuing up very early in the morning nor be responsible for the weather.

“On the enrolment day we open the leisure centre gate at 7am and issue tickets on a first come first serve basis. Saturday past we started enrolling at 8.10am and were finished by 9.10am.

“While parents are waiting we also offer free tea and coffee as well as have swimming coaches on hand to give advice and answer any questions.

“The difference with us compared to Coleraine Leisure Centre is that we provide different classes - we offer a four to six-year-old beginners lesson which is extremely popular and very successful. Parents like to get their children learning to swim at an early age and so these lessons are in great demand and fill up very fast.

“Obviously we would love to give every child a place but we do not have enough pool time, staff nor space to do that. Therefore we believe the fairest way to give every child a chance is to enrol every five or six weeks on a first come first serve basis.”

Looking at ways to improve the system, Paul continued: “We understand this way is not idea and if people want to queue up very early then we can’t stop them.

“However we are looking into allowing swimming lesson enrolment to be done online. We would have a set time and people could then email in their applications - again this would be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

“One concern would be ‘does everyone have a computer’, we wouldn’t want to discriminate against those who don’t, but its one avenue we are looking into.

“We are a leisure centre for the whole community and are always looking at ways to provide a better service for everyone - young and old.”

At the time of going to press, JDLC Leisure Centre still had vacancies for some swimming lessons.