New £32million LC in Swansea

[broomhillsaved]

The new water park leisure centre in Swansea isn't due to open until March but already a row has broken out over the planned admission charge of £7.

Families will pay £18 for "a day out", but at busy times will be limited to a two hour visit.

The chief executive says they will have "at least 2 hours" to go on all the fun rides (but if there are queues for different things the time will go pretty quickly.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7209607.stm

[Wildswimmer]

I certainly wouldn't pay £7 a go. If I want to experience waves and tides I could do it for free down on the beach. It's very obvious this facility is intended solely for Swansea's yuppie classes, and deliberately priced to exclude the plebs: the poor and those on benefits and pensions.

£7 for two hours!!!!????? - I only pay £16.50 for a month's almost unlimited swimming in a private pool. OK it doesn't have giant lavatory pipes I can be flushed down, but I can at least have an ordinary swim which, let's face it, is all most pool users want to do.

Wildswimmer Pete

[broomhillsaved]

The managers have already said (apparently) that those who "just want to swim" are catered for elsewhere in the city;

stunningly brilliant eh? spend £32 million of taxpayers money on a pool that is
a) extremely expensive
b) time limited
c) not for those who want to swim


If this truly was a whole day out a family might feel that £18 was worth it but i don't think that two hours will seem like good value - not by the time a family has changed, found a locker, queued for the most popular rides etc

[Juicy Lucy]

It is too easy to criticise what is in effect a brilliant facility.

For a family of four, the admission cost works out at just £4.50 each, or £2.25 per hour! How cheap do you want it? Where else can you enjoy your time at a £32m leisure facility for £2.25 per hour?

Phone your local golf range and ask how much an hour’s driving practice will cost, or call in at the nearest riding stables. For £2.25 you will be allowed to smell the horse, that’s all.

This water park was closed in 2003 for refurbishment and In its heyday it was one of the top 10 visitor attractions in the UK, in the same league as Madame Tussauds. That’s how popular it was.

The new leisure centre will have a network of pools, water rides, and slides, including an indoor surfing ride. A lazy river will allow children to body surf and there will be an interactive pool with play equipment and a toddler teaching facility in the Lagoon Pool.

We need more facilities like this where parents and children can go and enjoy their time together as a family unit. I’m all for it, and at £2.25 per hour it must be the best value-for-money opportunity in Swansea.

JL

[Wildswimmer]

Surely it isn't beyond the ability of the collar-and-tie brigade to realise that all they have to do is issue a "swim-only" ticket at similar cost to admission at a normal pool? This would enable those who just want to swim without playing with all the expensive little toys, to do just that. Very easy to enforce with modern technology - all it takes is a coded tag attached to the locker key bracelet.

I hadn't realised the centre had been rebuilt at public expense. Makes it even more of a disgrace that it is intended only for the use of the wealthy middle classes. Under our regressive tax regime the poor pay a much greater proportion of their income in taxation than do the rich, and making the poor pay towards a facility to benefit the rich, and from which they are excluded, is just obscene. Even by NuLab (tm) standards.

Edit: For those who wish to experience swimming in a slow river, isn't there a real one flowing through the centre of Swansea? You can swim in that for free.

Wildswimmer Pete

[Juicy Lucy]

Originally Posted by Wildswimmer

Surely it isn't beyond the ability of the collar-and-tie brigade to realise that all they have to do is issue a "swim-only" ticket at similar cost to admission at a normal pool? This would enable those who just want to swim without playing with all the expensive little toys, to do just that.

Oh come on, Wildswimmer, this is a fun pool. Those who just want to swim without ‘shooting the rapids’ or ‘sliding through the palm trees’ can swim at other pools in the city.

Originally Posted by Wildswimmer

I hadn't realised the centre had been rebuilt at public expense. Makes it even more of a disgrace that it is intended only for the use of the wealthy middle classes.

Also remember, the citizens of Swansea will also be entitled to discounts. By charging £2.25 per hour it can hardly be described as catering for the wealthy middle classes.

And besides, wealthy middle class people in South Wales? What planet are you on?

JL

[broomhillsaved]

But people don't have the option of paying just £2.25 do they? That 's the whole point - for a lot of people it will be £7 to cross the threshold and a family will have to spend £18 to obtain that rate.

[Juicy Lucy]

Originally Posted by broomhillsaved

But people don't have the option of paying just £2.25 do they? That 's the whole point - for a lot of people it will be £7 to cross the threshold and a family will have to spend £18 to obtain that rate.

But it's still good value for money.

As Wildy says, you can swim in the river for free, but what do you get? The chance to catch diseases from the bodies of dead and decaying rats?

[chris_lamb]

Originally Posted by broomhillsaved

But people don't have the option of paying just £2.25 do they? That 's the whole point - for a lot of people it will be £7 to cross the threshold and a family will have to spend £18 to obtain that rate.

So a maximum of £3.50/hour?

[Wildswimmer]

Spending 32million on frivolous play-pools such as this isn't going to do anything to reduce what the safety Nazis call "tombstoning" (or what sane folk describe as cliff-diving).

Assuming the money had been spent on a "proper" pool, what facilities could have been included? Proper diving pit with high boards? Training for SCUBA and commercial divers as well as our hopeful high-divers?

Just looked at pics of the River Tawe in Swansea - mostly unfenced so get in there before RoSPA find out!!

Anyway, there are plenty of beaches around Swansea Bay. Seems that cold-hardening will soon be the only way we plebs get a swim throughout the year, with wealthy softies being the only ones able to afford to swim in heated indoor pools. Either that or surf shops are going to do a roaring trade in winter "steamer" wetsuits.

Wildswimmer Pete

[Juicy Lucy]

Originally Posted by chris_lamb

So a maximum of £3.50/hour?

Now broomhillsaved will say, "But people don't have the option of paying just £3.50 do they? That 's the whole point."

And she's right, but it's still cheap entertainment. You won't be able to go to a Premiership football ground and pay £2.25 or £3.50 per hour.

This facility was one of the top 10 visitor attractions in the UK. People wanted to go and were happy to pay for it. Now it's been refurbished the place will be packed out again, every day. How many other public swimming pools around the country are in the 'top 10 visitor attractions' list? In a word, 'None'.

JL

[chris_lamb]

Originally Posted by Wildswimmer

Spending 32million on frivolous play-pools such as this isn't going to do anything to reduce what the safety Nazis call "tombstoning" (or what sane folk describe as cliff-diving).

And building a pool with a diving pit would?

[Wildswimmer]

Originally Posted by chris_lamb

So a maximum of £3.50/hour?

Just put yourself in the position of somebody on benefits, disability or a pension. Most local authorities have discount schemes for those on low incomes - the very people who often need access to swimming pools for reasons of health. In the case of my local authority this means a swim costs £1.40 for as long as you want.

Someone in such a position may be able to afford £2.25 for a swim, but most certainly not an effective minimum charge of £7.

Wildswimmer Pete

[Wildswimmer]

Originally Posted by chris_lamb

And building a pool with a diving pit would?

Obviously. It would provide a viable alternative, and give youngsters somewhere to show off in winter at the same time developing their diving skills and hazard awareness.

Meanwhile commercial diving outfits pay well for decent training facilities.

Wildswimmer Pete

[broomhillsaved]

The ASA and Sport England are not "recommending" diving apparently - it looks as if new pools will be built without diving boards and with a maximum depth of 2 metres.

So both divers and sub-aqua divers are likely to find it increasingly harder to find anywhere to practice. What a tragedy for a coastal nation!
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/Environme...tVale/FAQs.htm

see question on diving or www.londonpoolscampaign.com