OVER 50s swimmers at Craven Leisure pool in Skipton have reacted angrily after changes to the weekly programme meant their half hourly sessions being scrapped.

They claim that exclusive over 50s lane swims, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays have been running at the Skipton pool for at least 15 years, and attract up to 20 people at a time, but have now been scrapped without any plausible explanation.

The swimmers, including some in their 80s, now share the general lane swimming sessions, where they are up against younger, and faster swimmers.

Stephen Barker, 73, from Farnhill, speaking for several objectors, and a regular for at least 15 years, said no one could understand why it had been done.

Mr Barker, who plans to raise the issue with Skipton MP Julian Smith, said: “There is no reason for it. I am a good swimmer, and I and a lot of the others can swim with the faster swimmers, but a lot can’t. “

Lloyd Hancox, leisure services manager at Craven District Council, says the changes were brought in as a result of ‘customers changing needs’.

“The new programme means school swimming has moved to weekday afternoons, creating greater opportunity for daily pool use,” he said.

“The new space created in the mornings means we can increase our pre-school and baby learn-to-swim programmes, and create opportunities for new groups and classes such as home education students and hydro classes. As the school groups are swimming in the afternoon we need the pool to be clear by 12.45pm to meet their safeguarding needs. Therefore we looked at the lane swimming times and found that many over-50s were coming to the over-50s session and then continuing to swim throughout the general lane swim session. It therefore made sense to extend the general lane swim session to run from 11.30am to 12.45pm. Over-50s are still more than welcome to swim at exactly the same time as they always have done.”

He added: “We are also investigating the possibility of introducing a ‘super-fast’ lane and setting out some clear guidelines for the speeds which are appropriate for each lane, so that slower and faster swimmers are not disrupting one another. We will be consulting with customers on this. We hope the new pool programme will in fact offer more opportunities for a wider number of people to access the pool and make the most of our great facilities.”