Everybody Can Swim Parliamentary Reception

Club President Duncan Simpson attended a reception at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th March. The reception, arranged by Scottish Swimming, was intended to highlight the ‘Save Our pools’ campaign.

Scottish swimming pools are under threat of closure. Inflationary energy costs combined with ageing venues and staff shortages has led to a crisis in the leisure sector. Never has the need been greater to highlight the importance of pools for safety, for health and for communities.

#SaveOurPools is a national campaign to highlight the importance of swimming pools and secure long-term financial investment from the government for the sustainability of our pools and our sport.

Scottish Swimming strongly believes that swimming pools are vital community hubs for the population of Scotland, not only as ‘water safety classrooms’ teaching more than 100,000 children each week the essential life skill of learning to swim, but as part of the nation’s health service – improving mental and physical wellbeing for all ages and abilities which in turn saves the NHS £357 million every year.

At Wednesday’s reception, Alan Lynn, who is Head of Performance Development at British Swimming, opened proceedings with a plea to help children to learn to swim from an early age to be safe, confident and competent in water. Next up was Hannah Miley, the triple Olympic swimmer, World and Commonwealth Champion who was awarded an MBE in 2022. She gave a very powerful personal account of her journey from learning to swim at a rural swimming pool in Aberdeenshire to becoming an Olympic swimmer, and about how those around her – family, friends, swim team members and coaches – had all helped her along what was not a straightforward way to success. Dr Mark Harper followed Hannah with a different perspective on swimming. A qualified doctor and researcher, Mark has published studies discussing the wide-ranging health benefits of swimming for long term illnesses such as diabetes and arthritis, as well as mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The speeches were rounded off by Brian Lironi who described how Scottish Water’s partnership with Scottish Swimming has provided a huge boost to the Learn To Swim programme across Scotland.

Our club will be looking into how we can support the campaign at local level so watch for more information to follow.