Children and over-60s in Sandwell set for free swimming
Children and over-60s in Sandwell could be offered free swimming in a new bid to tackle obesity.
The council is considering the move as more than a quarter of Year 6 children in the borough are classed as obese.
The scheme also aims to boost the number of adults exercising, with council figures showing that 41 per cent do not take part in any physical activity.
Only 19.7 per cent of adults complete at least five 30-minute sessions of activity a week – the recommended amount.
At present, the health costs of inactivity in Sandwell are at least £4.5 million a year, and rising.
Should councillors give the go-ahead to the proposals at a meeting on Wednesday, free swimming could be on offer as early as this summer.
The offer would be open to those who are Sandwell residents aged 16 or under, during all public swimming sessions in school holiday periods, and to adults aged 60 and over during public swimming sessions before 1pm all year.
In the first year, the free sessions would be at Haden Hill Leisure Centre, Smethwick Swimming Centre, Langley Swimming Centre and Tipton Leisure Centre, and would be extended to include the new West Bromwich centre in 2014, and Wednesbury Leisure Centre in 2015.
It is expected that in the first year, the scheme would cost £92,300 and in 2014-15 a total of £134,500.
Councillor Paul Moore, Sandwell Council's cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: "With public health coming back to the responsibility of the council we have made significant savings already.
"We don't have enough money to sustain it for everyone, in the way it was before. That's why the one for kids is only in the school holidays."
He also criticised the Government for scrapping free swimming for all. Around 100,000 over-60s and under-16s in the Black Country and Staffordshire signed up to take advantage of free swimming sessions after they were introduced by Labour in 2008 but they were scrapped as part of £73 million government cuts in 2010.
Despite this, Wolverhampton City Council continued to fund free swimming for youngsters, and last year, Walsall Council introduced a scheme to give schoolchildren free sessions.
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