By Kelly Eve

Last updated at 10:06, Saturday, 31 July 2010

The relationship between the bosses at The Pools in Carlisle and a city swimming club has taken a dive because of a row over the use of facilities for children’s training.

The main 25m pool

The chairman of the City of Carlisle Amateur Swimming Club (ASC) claims early morning sessions for its youngest members are being hit because pool bosses will only let them use smaller pools even though the club pays to use the largest one.

Carlisle Leisure Limited (CLL), which runs The Pools on James Street, says technical problems in recent weeks have prevented the swimmers using the 25-metre pool and have pledged to hold talks with the club to try and find a way of resolving the issue.

Dozens of promising young swimmers, aged 10 to 16, train at 6am, three days a week – Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the last three Thursdays, the club has been told to use the smaller 20-metre pool.

Douglas Mullins, chairman of City of Carlisle ASC, said the club pays around £3,000 a month to use the largest pool, money raised through members’ subs.

He said: “Our swimmers were once again being dumped into the 20-metre pool.

“This is being done without any thought for the swimmers involved who the training is put on for. When I told the duty manager that the use of the 20-metre pool was not good enough, and we were a customer, the reply was ‘well go home then’.

“I then had to inform the swimmers, who like me get up before 5.30am to train, that the session was as a result cancelled.”

Mr Mullins said the club hires the 25-metre pool for a number of reasons. The larger pool allows members to develop their stroke count over a full-length pool, and helps when it comes to teaching them how to turn at the correct distance.

It also prevents swimmers from having to do extra lengths for short sprints. A larger pool also aids longer swims, which can be difficult to complete in a shorter pool.

The 20-metre pool is also unsuitable for training because the water is too hot and prevents swimmers from training at full capacity and it is too shallow at one end for them to tumble-turn effectively. The pool has no timing clock, which means coaches have to use stopwatches on lanes, leaving them unable to spend necessary teaching time with children.

Mr Mullins said: “The club is a customer of CLL and we purchase the hire of the pool to train swimmers, most of which are in teenage years who are trying to make their way in a tough sport.

“Some are hoping to get national qualifying times in the near future. We therefore ask that when we hire the 25-metre pool that is what we get.”

A CLL statement said: “Unfortunately due to plant failures the preferred pool has suffered technical problems over recent weeks that has resulted in the club being inconvenienced, which we very much regret.

“In order to try to alleviate these problems that will unfortunately arise with old plant from time to time, CLL will meet with the club to see what can be done to minimise the disruption to their training.

“CLL are committed to working with the clubs to ensure swimming is catered for effectively across the city.”

First published at 09:02, Saturday, 31 July 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk