Swimming

Just been on our local swimming pool site. Doesn't seem to be a reduction for pensioners. I'm in North Norfolk.
I'm not sure if there should be. Swimming is a great exercise but so is walking and that's free. I understand that older people should exercise to keep fit but not at the expense of more vital services.
My 'local' pool is 16 miles away so wold cost me quite a lot to even get there.

Used to be free here in Waking but no more we pay £2.50 but I recently joined the gym there so I pay £30 a month for gym,pool and any excercise class. I swim twice a week plus the gym

Not waking , Ealing West London

£15 a month for 'offpeak' swimming at our local, basic 25m pool, that includes water classes such as aqaufit that take place at off peak times.
I am especially grateful for this at times when I have been unable to walk following surgery.

Senior Citizen's concessions at the pool in Abingdon. Just a pity it is so difficult for us to access. Instead we pay for concessionary membership of the private club less than a mile from home (£70 a month for the two of us)

In my inner !ondon borough it's free to swim, but in the outer London borough where I am a member of the local gym, it's £25 per month for u limited off peak use of the gym, pool and classes, which I think is a good deal.

We can buy a card that gives us concessionary benefits at pools and leisure centres in this city, but unfortunately most of the swimming facilities are quite a way away. Our nearest pool - a few minutes down the road - happens to be in the next county, and because we don't live and pay rates in the county, we can't get pool concessions or gym memberships. It's daft.

I have nothing but praise for my local council. I am over 65 and get FREE swims, my husband has just turned 60 and gets consessionary price of £1.50. We have indoor and outdoor pools.

here in poole we have three swimming pools and each one has a morning when the over 60s can swim for free - each pool has a different morning so you could really go swimming three times a week for free!
and our council does a scheme called "access to leisure and learning" for those people on benefits [pension credit, dla, etc, etc]. it costs about £2.50 a year for the card and you can then get discounts on swimming [outside the free swimming times], theatre performances and also courses which they run around the town.
i used to go swimming once a week with a friend but unfortunately she passed away so i haven't been for a while as i don't like swimming on my own. and, for almost a year now, i've had a severe problem with arthritis in one knee and cannot walk from the changing room to the pool without a walking stick and there's nowhere to leave the stick beside the pool!

Our local public baths has a concessionary scheme where pensioners pay £65 (when we last enquired, may have increased but you get the gist) a year for off peak swimming. I think that's a fair deal.

South Norfolk you get free swims if you are over 60 (65 for men). I remember complaining once when I was charged far more than all the women in the queue in front of me. We all did aqua aerobics and the instructor was always encouraging us to have a swim after the class. I didn't usually have time, but on this one occasion I did. I was astonished at the cost and queried it. The manager returned the cost of the swim, but the cashier muttered "the others are entitled to get it free". It was then that it dawned on me that I was the only one in the class under 60 ?!

I thought the free swimming was knocked on the head by this government in 2010 as soon as they came to power

Nothing! I live @ the beach and can swim in the sea for FREE. OK! the dog swims and I paddle:0)

Greenwich have special rates fo SC you get a card from your local library, Woolwich,Eltham, and you pay a small amount. I haven't swum for a while, so I know it was about £3 not sure now though.

Paddling pool in garden for hot feet and paws is free my local hotel indoor pool is £6 during the week, Penzance Jubilee Lido price range is £3-5, but well worth it if you're ever in Cornwall. www.jubileepool.co.uk/

About £290pa for unlimited access to pool, indoor and out in the summer, and spa facilities. Price set for life as long as I remain a member.

I live in Chelmsford, Essex. I pay £10 a year for swimming. From 6.00am to 2.00pm.
However, I also belong to Virgin Active, a private club, and pay £40 a month. Crazy woman, I know but it's a lot nicer.

My BIL used to swim several times per week for free at his local pool. But then they brought in a small charge which, despite a very good pension, he refused to pay. Six months later he died of a massive heart attack. I have often wondered if it would have happened had he continued his swimming instead of stopping and doing no other exercise in it's place.

Our nearest pool is privately run. £10 per session and no discount. But it does have a steam room and jacuzzi. The next nearest. Council run at Sheringham is 15 miles away and does have a wrinkly reduction but neither of us can remember how much it costs. I think £3.50 or £4.50. I like this one as it has a 'beach' so I can walk in. No steps to worry about. We're very short of pools in my bit of Norfolk.

Hi water and ballroom addict.
I love to swim.... I do it four times a week at my local pool in Bedford and cycle to and fro. I'm 67 and they charge me £2 per session... that's with my discount card which they charge £5 for renewal each year!! Cheap as chips as my grandson would say!!

Thank you Anyo you were correct i.e. in 2010 the Tory-Lib government announced that free swimming introduced by Labour for children and pensioners a year before was to be stopped.

Thanks also for the responses, which to me, makes interesting reading. So maybe pensioners do not feel strongly that free swimming is a requirement for them but I certainly feel it should be for children. If there is some sort of agreement on that then why not pensioners (those who do not need it) donate their Winter fuel allowance to a fund for free children's swimming? - thus at a stroke taking it out of government hands? Pensioners are sometimes criticised for thinking too much of themselves (outrageously many will say I know) - but this altruism will show to the many this is not remotely the case at all and provide a legacy for children in the future.

Hi waterandballroomaddict - Horsham used to be my local pool too and it's a great pool. Now that I've moved my local one is either Haywards Heath or Burgess Hill and I'm not too impressed with either of them. Both pools offer a discount to seniors but the timing is not particularly convenient as they're fairly heavily booked with school swimming lessons. To be fair that's not a great problem, I'm pleased that school lessons take priority as I consider swimming important

You would think, wouldn't you, that living near the Broads in Norfolk with all that water around and a long coast line much of which isn't safe for swimmers, swimming pools would be high on the list of priorities. But it's not. Kids get taught at school but then there's few pools they can use when they leave. Consequently they often swim where they shouldn't and get into trouble. At least we can make the most of the quiet mid afternoon sessions when we often have the pool nearly to ourselves.

This is all very interesting. I really hadn't considered a swimming pool important when we retire to the coast, but I'm beginning to have a rethink.
I like the idea of donating the winter fuel allowance for free swims for children.