Pool attendance figures don’t tell the full story

I WAS amazed to find that in the Cork City Council estimates for ‘05 there were only 8,000 entrants to Douglas swimming pool last year. This is incorrect. Our club, Sundays Well, pays the council approx. €80,000 per annum for use of the pool.

During these sessions up to 60 young members of our club use the facility each day between 6.30am and 8am. We also use the pool on Thursdays and Sundays with up to 250 children getting lessons in these sessions alone.

So, on an annual basis, this would mean that our members alone clock up 43,000 visits to the pool.

If one also includes the 12 primary schools that use the pool on a weekly basis, and the other five clubs that also use the facility, in addition to members of the public, I think the figure would be well in excess of 100,000 visits annually. Or is it that when the pool is booked by clubs and schools, city officials have conveniently decided that this counts as only one visit.

Enterprise and Employment Minister Micheál Martin recently called to the club and confirmed that there was money available to upgrade the Douglas facility under the local authority swimming pool programme, if the city authorities were prepared to apply for it.

Why should the pool be closed on Saturday afternoon and Sundays to cut costs when such funds are available to upgrade it? Why won’t the council apply for this funding instead of looking for every excuse to try to close the facility?

Aidan Lougheed

PRO

Sundays Well Swimming Club

14 Bellvue Grove

Frankfield

Cork