Pool closures 'hitting children'

Duncan Goodhew said there are waiting lists at some public pools

Campaigners have urged the government to provide more funding for public swimming pools in England.

Some children have not been learning how to swim because a growing number of pools are closing down, Olympic gold medallist Duncan Goodhew told the BBC.

He said local government funding had been diverted into other areas.

Sports Minister Richard Caborn said there was a problem with swimming pool provision but it would be tackled as playing field sales had been.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme local authorities and Sport England were working on new strategies to modernise sports facilities, including swimming pools.

Mr Caborn said subsidies of £5-a-head in operation at some "very old" public pools were unsustainable.

"There are now actually more [pools] in the private sector than there are in the public sector - the landscape is changing," he added.

Basic question

Mr Goodhew, who won a gold medal in the breaststroke at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, said every month he was hearing about three swimming pools facing closure.

He said there were now waiting lists at some public pools.

"We have to ask ourselves a basic question: Do we want every child to be able to swim?," Mr Goodhew said.

"If we do, we have to have a real look at what needs to be done."

David Sparks, chief executive of the Amateur Swimming Association, called for "a financial incentive for local authorities to invest in the sport".

He said swimming should appeal to the government's interest in "health promotion".

"If we've got a healthy nation, a nation that's swimming more often then effectively we need less investment in the health service itself," he added.