Update: Relocation may close swimming club

1:08pm Saturday 5th April 2008

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PARENTS and coaches have warned that plans to relocate a swimming club will force it to close.

Under the Greenwich Council proposals, Eltham Stingrays club will move to Thamesmere Leisure Centre, Thamesmere Drive, Thamesmead, in September.

It is currently based at the new Eltham Centre, Archery Road, but has had the number of sessions it can run reduced from 11 to two.

The move is part of proposals in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics, which would see a new Greenwich borough club set up.

Responsibility for learn to swim classes would be taken away from Greenwich's four competitive clubs and given to Greenwich Leisure Ltd, a not-for-profit trust which manages leisure centres.

Each club would have it's own 'home' pool and would take on pupils who have learned to swim.

Higher level swimmers would be passed on to the borough club.

Stingrays coach Griffith Kennedy, who works as a volunteer, says he is starting a petition against the proposals after consultation meetings with councillors last week.

He said: "They're taking away the chance of swimming for kids who'll never go to the Olympics."

Mr Kennedy says members like his 13-year-old son Ciaran will not be able to travel to Thamesmead and this would force it to close.

Stingrays head coach Eddy Beager said: "The problem is the amount of time it would take for most of my swimmers and parents to get to Thamesmere.

"We have 130 members and I would expect to lose at least half of them."

Paul Bovey, 49, of Dominic Drive, New Eltham, has two daughters, aged 18 and 15, who both started at the club when they were nine.

He said: "They've enjoyed being members but if the plans go ahead they'll have to change clubs, maybe to one outside the borough, or they might decide to just pack it in."

The council says the shake-up is aimed at strengthening support for top-level competitive swimmers, providing better use of pool time for competitive swimmers to train more frequently, greater opportunities for learners and pooling of coaches across the borough.

Its plans have been drawn-up with London Swimming, a region of the Amateur Swimming Association, the national governing body for swimming in England and Wales.

Sharks of Mottingham Swimming Club will move to Waterfront Leisure Centre, Woolwich High Road, and Greenwich Borough Mariners will stay at the Eltham Centre and .

Greenwich Swimming Club will stay at Arches Leisure Centre, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich.

But chairman of Greenwich Swimming Club Jonathan Carter said he was worried the club would lose its independence and fees would increase.

He said: "I don't think any of the clubs have a problem with improving swimming in the borough, but the problem is the way in which the proposals have been put forward.

"At the moment we've got no confidence that what is being provided will be better for our swimmers."

Greenwich Council Conservative leader Councillor Spencer Drury said: "The whole thing is ridiculous.

"They're taking control of something run by volunteers and have reduced the time that people can use Eltham swimming baths so they have to go somewhere else."

A spokesman for Greenwich Council said: "The council is currently carrying out a thorough review of the support offered to swimming across the borough.

"The council also wants to address the existing imbalance in competitive swimming opportunities between different parts of the borough, and to ensure that young people in the north and east of the borough have local access to competitive swimming and coaching.

"We greatly value and appreciate the feedback we have had so far, and are currently looking at a number of options for achieving the aims set out in our strategy."