Oval and Europa Pools turn swimmers away as demand outstrips capacity

Feb 25 2009 Bromborough and Bebington News

SCORES of unhappy swimmers are being turned away from Wirral’s pools because they are full to capacity and cannot cope with demand.

Last week’s half-term holiday saw queues form on a daily basis outside the peninsula’s two main centres, Europa Pools in Birkenhead and the newly refurbished £3m Bebington Oval.

Wirral News visited the Oval at 1.15pm on Friday, 15 minutes before the doors opened for the family swim at 1.30pm.

We found mums and dads, grandparents and children waiting patiently for admission, and then being turned away because the pool’s capacity had been reached.

Wirral Council concedes “the number of people wanting to swim at our pools often exceeds the capacity we can safely accommodate”, pointing out under-16s swim free in school holidays.

But Joseph Nieves and Becky Reid, from Eastham, had already spent more than 90 minutes waiting on another occasion, also picking up a parking ticket.

While queuing on Friday, Becky told the News: “We’d queued for one-and-a-half hours and the car park was two hours, so I had to explain.

“It was a pain, I just didn’t expect to be queuing that long.”

On Friday, both were turned away, leaving Joseph fuming.

He said: “I’m just absolutely disgusted with the way it’s all been run.”

Mark Craig is chairman of New Ferry Regeneration Action Group.

He says he has been turned away five times since January, despite spending £20 on a monthly pass after being urged to swim by his doctor.

Mark, who was with his 12-year-old daughter, Shannon, said: “It’s become a massive problem.

“It was great at first, and there was plenty of space to swim, but by mid-January the pool was becoming increasingly full.

“About three weeks ago it was getting beyond a joke, I went down to the pool and they said, sorry it’s too full, we can’t let anybody else in.

“That’s happened five times now, and last night again.”

Mark and his daughter were also turned away on Friday, along with around 50 others.

Last week, Byrne Avenue Baths in Rock Ferry, transferred to a community trust in 1996, closed its doors placing further strain on resources.

A Wirral Council spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear of the closure of Byrne Avenue but we are confident there is enough capacity and flexibility within our pool programme to deal with any additional demand.”

The spokesman stressed no pool will close, for two years at least, as a result of the council’s strategic asset review and “if there are lessons to be learned from previous transfers, these will be incorporated into policy”.

Mark, a Liverpool City Council regeneration officer, added: “I’m paying £20 a month, they’re taking my money but I’m not getting the service.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous, we’ve reached the stage now where there seems to be far more demand than ever.”