Largs & Millport Weekly News | News | SNP swim plan set to sink

Monday, 13th October, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 11th June, 2008 12:00

SNP swim plan set to sink

By Calum Corral

Comments (0)

Print Article

Image related to story, see caption or article text

Pool problem ... The Largs O.I.R are disbanding their swimming section because a bid for free swimming has been rejected.

A Largs swimming club for pensioners looks set to thrown off the deep end after proposals to provide free swimming for OAPs were drowned out by party politics.

The Largs Opportunities in Retirement’s swimming section is disbanding after holding out until this month in the hope that the free offer would be put in place in a similar vein to Glasgow and Inverclyde councils.

However, the SNP group who made the pledge in their manifesto, have admitted they have been beaten by party politics as NO other party political parties have backed them in their calls.

Mr Bill Alexander, chairman of the OIR swimming group in Largs, said: “We were told we were going to get free swimming by May 8 but this has not happened. Why are we not getting it?"

Councillor Alan Hill, leader of the SNP opposition said: “We needed a majority at North Ayrshire Council to back our pledge to provide free swimming and this turned out not to be the case. None of the other political parties backed us on this.”

However, Labour Councillor Alex Gallagher hit back: “There was a proposal to apply for free swimming for children and for older people but when the proposal was put to the council, we decided the best way to spend the money was to increase the free swimming for schools. The SNP’s refusal to work in the review group is irresponsible and trivialises the council’s work.”

For full story, read this week's Largs and Millport Weekly News.