A SWIMMING crisis for primary school children in Northwich has been averted – at least in the short-term.

It was announced in April that Sir John Deane’s College was permanently closing its swimming pool, due to the ever-increasing running costs of the ageing facility.

News of its closure posed a significant risk to the future of water safety and swimming for local children; both of which being part of the National Curriculum since 1994.

However, at a meeting of Northwich Town Council on Monday, June 6, Cllr Andrew Cooper said a short-term solution to the crisis had been found.

Brio Leisure, with pools in both Northwich and Winsford, has agreed to change its schedule, enabling them to accommodate all primary school-aged children in the next academic year.

Cllr Cooper said: “Cllr Sam Naylor and I have been working on solving the primary school swimming crisis for the last couple of months.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work with Vale Royal School Sport Partnership, Cheshire West’s public health team and with Brio.

“Following these discussions, we’re now confident that Brio will be able to reconfigure its timetable so that every primary school that wants it, will be able to have some time in the Brio pool during the next academic year.

“This includes the pools in both Northwich and Winsford.

“This is really good news.

“There is still a bit to do to get all the primary schools on board and some of them want to continue to use their pop-up pools on their playgrounds, which is fine.”

However, Cllr Cooper went on to say that although very much welcomed, it was not the end of the story, with a lack of swimming instructors and an ever-expanding population likely to create additional issues further down the line.

“It’s not just having the pool space, it’s also about having the teachers,” he added.

“I’ve been speaking with Chris Story (development manager at Vale Royal School Sport Partnership) about what we can do as a town council.

“This could well mean funding existing teaching staff to complete courses to be able to teach water safety and swimming.

“But we also need to bear in mind that although we might be able to accommodate every child this year, we’re an expanding town, so we need to consider what happens after that.

“So there still needs to be a long-term solution.”

Both Brio Leisure and Cheshire West and Chester Council have been approached for a comment.