ESC swimming pool opening

Published 01:00 on 15 Jul 2020

Your Estates Committee members have been trying to digest the 20-page pool opening document from Swim England, our governing body, and we have done our best to interpret the COVID-19 avoidance guidance for opening the pool.

We hope you all appreciate that we are trying to get as many members swimming as possible, whilst staying socially distanced. You may decide to just swim in the sea!

Please appreciate this is a very flexible plan, which will probably need to be tweaked as we see how it works - your feedback to Liz in the office will be very welcome.

Please stand by until the pool is cleaned, chlorinated, heated and we have the lane markers and have ongoing testing with the club booking system! We will make the announcement on the club website and Facebook page when we are ready to go. We hope to provide an update next week but it is taking a little longer than we had hoped for to get everything ready.

BOOKING: Members will need to book a 30-minute slot in Lane A or Lane B, at least one day in advance. We have created an online booking system which will be on the club website. Many thanks to Alex Gawley. There will be a lane divider in the middle of the pool.

There will be a maximum of 2 swimmers per lane, but members of one household can book a lane with more than 2 swimmers.

We ask that you voluntarily limit your bookings to just 4 swims a week. Once we know the demand, we hope to lift this restriction.

You must have a current resuscitation qualification to be able to use the pool.

ARRIVING: Our changing rooms remain CLOSED, so Swim England ask you to arrive in your swimming kit. We have placed a large clock opposite the pool gate, so do not enter the pool enclosure until the previous swimmers have left. Please keep socially distant and sanitise your hands before entering.

CHANGING: Once inside the pool enclosure, please change and leave your clothing & towels poolside, remaining socially distanced.

SWIM: CLOCKWISE for only 25 minutes, collect your kit, sanitise your hands and leave, allowing the next bookings to enter the pool enclosure.

CHANGE: The changing rooms are still closed so please change when you get home.

I am really sorry about the number of rules, but we do need to follow the guidelines that Swim England have issued for our own safety.

If we all use common sense and help each other, up to 8 swimmers per hour can enjoy our lovely pool, which will be open from 8am to 8 pm.

We will confirm the pool opening date as soon as we are able.

RESUSCITATION CERTIFICATES: We're currently exploring different solutions in order to allow those members whose Resuscitation Qualification has expired, to renew it. This may include an online offering whilst we wait for the RYA to allow clubhouses to re-open and face-to-face courses to re-start. We'll let you all know as soon as this is ready to launch.

Let's all make it work and get back to regular exercise!

Many thanks

Alan Perry and Marcus Lawson, pool volunteers.