Derry City and Strabane District Council defends a decision to close the pool at the Foyle Arena to the general public at busy times of the week

Derry City and Strabane District Council has defended a decision to close the swimming pool at the Foyle Arena to the public at busy times of the week.

Since Christmas, the pool at the new leisure centre has been closed to the public between 3.30pm and 6pm on weekdays and from 10am to 12noon on Saturday.

This has been to facilitate private swimming lessons.

However, local councillors today said they have been inundated with complaints about the closures.

The issue was discussed at a meeting in Strabane this afternoon of the council’s Health and Community Committee.

The matter was not on the agenda but was brought up at the meeting by DUP Alderman Drew Thompson.

He said he had been contacted by many people who were annoyed at the decision, particularly given that the times affected were usually the prime time for families to go swimming.

In response, Paul Tamati, the council’s Leisure and Sports Services Manager, said the decision to close the pools at these times had been taken in order to support the council’s ever-expanding learn to swim programme.

Mr Tamati said that previously the pool was spilt in two during swimming lessons, with one section used for the lessons and the other open to the public.

However, he said they had received complaints from both parents of children taking part in the lessons and people using the public section of the pool about the situation.

As a result, Mr Tamati said, the decision had been taken to use the pool exclusively for swimming lessons during these times.

He said the council currently had around 1,500 children taking part in swimming lessons in their facilities and were finding it difficult to cope with the demand.

However, he told the meeting that the council would listen to the feedback from users of the centre and will shortly review the situation.

For a full report from today's meeting see Monday's Derry News.