Anger over cut back of pool sessions at Sheffield leisure centre

Andrew Kennedy, 61, says Graves Health and Sports Centre is too focused on lane swimming and no longer offers enough sessions where people are free to swim at leisure or relax and exercise in the water.

He said: "Graves Leisure Centre is not providing facilities which are open for all, far from it.

"Whilst continuing to charge full fees for swimming, they offer about 35 lane swimming sessions a week - five per day - but they only offer two Just Swim sessions per week with one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday.

"This is wrong as there are a great number of people who used to attend Just Swim sessions. The sessions offered should cater for all users who swim. Before the pandemic, sessions were offered evenly apart from the weekend, about six each per day."

Places Leisure, which runs Graves, said its timetable was amended following the lockdowns but it hoped full sessions would resume soon.

Tim Hicks, contract manager at Places Leisure, said: "The past 14 months has been a very difficult time for the leisure sector.

"Over this time we have prioritised our Covid response in order to protect both our facilities and our customers.

"Despite the recent easing of lockdown we have been unable to reinstate all activity programmes as previously, due to some restrictions remaining in place such as social distancing which has lead to reduced capacities in many of our activity areas.

"Over the coming weeks and as restrictions lift further we will review our activity programmes and make positive changes in our focus to help more people to become more active more often.

"We always strive to provide excellent customer service to all our venue users by putting people first however our overall priority is to keep our customers safe.

"Our drive is to help everyone feel happier and healthier by improving their health and wellbeing through providing a vast range of varied activities across a number of venues."