Westcroft Leisure Centre row casts shadow over opening of £11 million venue

9:00am Saturday 8th September 2012 in News By James Pepper

Row erupts over Olympic legacy at multi-million pound swimming pool Row erupts over Olympic legacy at multi-million pound swimming pool

A row has broken out over the Olympic legacy a new £11million leisure centre will offer after a swimming club claimed its elite athletes were being ignored.

Sutton and Cheam Swimming Club has said the borough's elite swimmers and Olympic hopefuls will be given limited access to the pool at the new £11million Westcroft Leisure Centre.

The new pool, which is due to open early next year, features diving blocks and electronic timing systems but the club argues the people they are intended for will not be able to use them when they need to.

Dave Andrews, Chairman of the Sutton and Cheam Swimming Club said: "Why build the thing if we can't use it?"

"They have gone to huge expense to make this a state of the art facility, and it will be one, but those who need it will not be able to use it because of the times we are being offered."

Currently on offer to the club is 13-and-a-half hours usage per category and a week, between 9pm and 10.30pm every day, but Mr Andrews claims the slots are at "very unsociable hours".

He said: "We have seen a huge surge in demand since the Olympics and young people want to swim. If you make our swimmers train between 9pm and 10pm, the adrenaline will be pumping and they wont sleep ahead of school the next day."

"The other time they have offered us is on Sunday afternoons and that is when we have competitions, as do the boroughs other three swimming clubs."

The club currently boasts five young swimmers who are in the top 10 in the country, including top ranked swimmer April Hedges, the top ranked 200m backstroke swimmer for her age in the country.

Currently the club uses Cheam Baths, but the pool is not 25 metres - teh standard competition length.

A spokesman for Sutton Council said: "The general public have had very little midweek evening swimming time at Cheam Baths for 50 years because swimming clubs use this taxpayer owned facility. Of course we want the clubs to use Westcroft too, but we have to find a balance, so we've offered them 13.5 hours a week of exclusive pool usage at a significantly discounted rate."

Comments(14)

Crease2000 says...
10:51am Sat 8 Sep 12

So, a minority (potential champion swimmers) feel that they should take priority over everyone else at a community swimming pool?

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Tony L Martin says...
12:50pm Sat 8 Sep 12

The pool is designed for elite athletes. There are other pools for other people to use. A 50m pool with electronic timing equipment would be a waste of money, if not used by elite athletes.
You may as well build a full size boxing ring to have pillow fights in.

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Krissi says...
2:20pm Sat 8 Sep 12

we need more pools then- any time I used Westcroft you couldn't really swim much as it was so packed - and in the summer it would be brilliant if we had an outdoor pool- like the one in Purley Way which certainly was the one I would have gone to by choice, Tooting Lido is usually also packed in the summer as well and I prefer a pool where you can see outside, to something like nature rather than clouded glass or a blank wall, apparently we used to have a tiny pool in the park below the watermill maybe someone could clean this out and fix it up I'm sure it would be popular and probably would pay for itself as even in winter there are people who prefer to swim outdoors I certainly do for one

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Car99 says...
2:32pm Sat 8 Sep 12

Tony L Martin wrote:
The pool is designed for elite athletes. There are other pools for other people to use. A 50m pool with electronic timing equipment would be a waste of money, if not used by elite athletes.
You may as well build a full size boxing ring to have pillow fights in.
Westcroft will be half the length of an Olympic pool at 25m.
Cheam is 30m long.
The Club might as well stay at Cheam, use stopwatches, and have exclusive use at times that better suit the teenagers.

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Michael Pantlin says...
3:46pm Sat 8 Sep 12

I gave up years ago using Westcroft Pool for swimming exercise to try to improve health because the water was so cold my teeth used to chatter. When I asked for the temperature to be cranked up I was told can't do that because of Sports Council rules set the temperature for those in clubs who can whizz up and down in their masks and not there for the social or to ease their aches and pains. I switched to the Water Palace near Croydon Airport. I was happy there then it closed. Why should I pay council tax to support a pool I cannot use?

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Tony L Martin says...
11:54pm Sat 8 Sep 12

According to the article, it will be an Olympic sized pool and if swimming clubs don’t use it, what was the point of building it?

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Crease2000 says...
12:02am Sun 9 Sep 12

I'm not sure? Perhaps something to do with the rebuild of a public swimming pool for the community plus the library relocating within the building. Personally I don't like the thought of my taxes contributing towards something that a minority feel that they should have exclusive rights over?

Me, a member of the Joe-Public doesn't care about the size of a swimming pool. Olympic sized or not, it is a swimming pool to me :o)

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Tony L Martin says...
12:13am Sun 9 Sep 12

Crease2000 wrote:
I'm not sure? Perhaps something to do with the rebuild of a public swimming pool for the community plus the library relocating within the building. Personally I don't like the thought of my taxes contributing towards something that a minority feel that they should have exclusive rights over?

Me, a member of the Joe-Public doesn't care about the size of a swimming pool. Olympic sized or not, it is a swimming pool to me :o)
I understand what you’re saying, but we don’t want another White Elephant Lane, like Stratford. There shouldn’t be a problem using it for Joe Public and Elite Athletes.

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Likkle says...
11:46am Sun 9 Sep 12

Mr Andrews said the hours were unsociable - AND? - Elite athletes dont just train 9-5 Monday to Friday. If you want to be the best you train hard at what ever time you can. As a child my swimming club was 7pm-10pm on a weekday, we had a choice if we wanted to do and we did. Its a community pool for the 'COMMUNITY' . K2 in crawley has an olympic pool and facilities, the swimming clubs and other sports dont moan about there times or the public using it. Dave Andrews - Westcroft isn't being refurbished for your club. Be grateful that the council actually refurbished it rather than knocking it down and building houses on the site. Tony L Martin - so what that its an olympic size pool, i dont club swim anymore, yet i still swim in an olympic size pool, not wasted on me at all, i get a better swim if anything. The size of the pool doesn;t matter, its just people moaning and throwing there toys because they want it to be all about them (Sutton & Cheam Swimming Club) The community are getting something new and up to date, yet people are still moaning!

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Lukerow says...
1:11pm Sun 9 Sep 12

Olympic sized swimming pools are 50m, the pool pictured isn't.

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Car99 says...
4:27pm Sun 9 Sep 12

Tony L Martin wrote:
According to the article, it will be an Olympic sized pool and if swimming clubs don’t use it, what was the point of building it?
Both Sutton and the leisure company running the Centre, Everyone Active, call it "competition size".
The original pool was just over 33m but now is a 25m x17m competition pool.
The teaching pool, however, is larger than the original (12m x 7m) at 20m x 10m.
The planning application no. is D2011/64581 on the Sutton website, where the plans and drawings can be
seen.
The reporter needs to do a little more homework before going to print.

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theresa7475 says...
10:17pm Sun 9 Sep 12

I for one just hope they have the staff to maintain and keep it clean. It wasn't long after it re-opened last time that it went down hill. Dirty disgusting changing rooms and god knows what on the pool floor. Back in the days of the old Westcroft with the individual changing areas, there was always someone cleaning the floor and changing bins. Any body know how much the cost of a swim is now going to be?

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Michael Pantlin says...
6:30pm Tue 11 Sep 12

Ban baby poo squidging between your toes on your walk to the water.

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Car99 says...
7:35pm Thu 13 Sep 12

Michael Pantlin wrote:
Ban baby poo squidging between your toes on your walk to the water.
Do you ever contribute anything of value to a debate? The evidence is overwhelming to the contrary.

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