Its a couple of weeks ago now, but I never wrote about this at the time because I was having server trouble, and then got caught up in the whole Christmas thing. On Dec 12th I went to a Broadfield Forum meeting, and there was an update on a question about swimming at K2 from a previous meeting.

The problem was that some residents were getting a bit peeved about going down to the new K2 leisure centre with their towels and trunks, looking forward to a bit of a swim, and finding the pool closed to the public because of a swimming gala. The feeling was that the pool is closed to residents like this too often.

At the latest meeting one of the K2 staff came along to explain their policy on using the pool for competitive events, and she made some good points. The gist of it was that the council and the firm which runs K2 for them have an obligation to residents to provide a facility for leisure swimming, but they also have an obligation to provide an opportunity for those residents involved in more serious swimming to be able to compete.

I had not thought of it in those terms. There must be quite a few swimmers, and trainers who derive a great benefit from the galas, not to mention those who enjoy just watching.

Apparently there are some guidelines. Like there will not be events where the pool is closed for a whole weekend more than 7 times a year, and there will not be events where the pool is closed for half the weekend more than 15 times a year. Furthermore the pool will not be closed at all two weekends running.

Looking at it one way that is a closure for all or part of 22 weekends, which is nearly half the weekends (42% – not counting closures which might occur if Christmas falls on a weekend) or two closures nearly every month. Looking at it another way it is 29 weekend days closed out of a total of 104 weekend days in a year – or 28% of weekend days.

The problem seems to be one of communication. If someone does not know the pool is closed and they turn up to be disappointed it is no consolation that there was a 72% chance of it being open – it feels like its 100% closed.

The council and K2 management publicise these galas by having signs up in the building and information on websites and by trying to have schedules placed in the local papers but it is not working very well. Infrequent visitors will not have seen the in-house notices, the information only gets into the local papers if there is room for it and even then it will not be prominent (I can’t recall ever seeing such information myself in either local paper) and don’t get me started on the quality of the council’s website.

So there are limits on how often the pool can be closed off, but the actual dates are not known to most of us. Not only can this be a problem for anyone who wants to go swimming spontaneously but there could also be people who would go along as a spectator but don’t know there is anything on to see.

I think that the current forms of communication should be supplemented by that low-tech device: the bloody great sign. The football club have one at the entrance to the stadium which says when the next home game is and who it is against, the Hawth have one at the entrance saying what is on. I think that K2 should have the same. I suggested it to the council at the forum, and I would like to think they made a note of the suggestion.
One little problem there is that the entrance to K2 is on a straight bit of road and not a roundabout. Drivers will be going faster and be less likely to see a sign, but its got to be better than nothing. Perhaps they could come to an agreement with Thomas Bennett to have a sign on the corner by the roundabout as well?

I am a big fan of using technology like the Internet, but sometimes the low-tech solution can be a lot more effective.

There is a list of all the events for 2008, and its an impressive list (available from K2 or the Town Hall) with county championships, schools international competitions, national water polo, and the British triathlon nationals. As we have one of the very few 50m pools in the South-East it is very much in demand, and gives our own local swimmers a real advantage in their training, after which its only right that they can then compete.

It looks like its a really difficult balance between the needs of the area’s serious swimmers and leisure swimmers, but no amount of careful scheduling is going to satisfy everyone if it is not communicated properly. Although this was raised at the Broadfield Forum it affects more than just Broadfield. The whole town and surrounding areas will have frustrated swimmers travelling to K2 on the ‘wrong’ days.