Bedminster Councillor Backs Online Petition To Save Free Swimming

Local Labour councillor Mark Bradshaw is supporting a bid to save free swimming for the over 60s and under 16s.

An online petition has been started by his fellow Labour councillor Ron Stone, who wants everyone in Bristol to ask the question “Why can’t we save our free swimming when Newcastle City Council can?”

Cllr Ron Stone (Labour, St George West) said: “What I can’t understand is that the Lib Dems who run Newcastle City Council recognise the value of free swimming to the over 60s and the under 16s and have decided to fund it despite governments cuts in spending  - why can’t we do the same in Bristol?

“What I want to know is if the Lib Dems in Newcastle don’t have to follow the Lib Dem/Tory government line – why do the Lib Dems in Bristol slavishly support their government when clearly they don’t have to?”

Mark Bradshaw is asking local people – especially those who have taken advantage of the former Labour government’s free swims offer – to sign Cllr Stone’s online petition and use public opinion to change the minds of the ruling Lib Dems in Bristol.

Cllr Ron Stone added: “Even the Lib Dems recognise the fitness and exercise value of the extra swims for the elderly and the value of building confidence for young swimmers – but they won’t defy their new government. They seem to have swallowed all the cuts, hook, line and sinker.”

Bristol City Council told BedminsterPeople that although central government funding for free swimming will be withdrawn from the end of this month as part of the government’s programme of cuts, the council will be looking at what other options are available.

The council funded 177,500 swims for under 16s and 79,000 swims for over 60s in 2009/10. Last year the number of over 60s swims increased by four times and the number of swims taken by the under 16s went up by more than 25 per cent. The government grant for this was £317,000.

Click here to sign the petition.