Councillors in Hull have unanimously agreed to look at the feasibility of restoring a lido in East Park. A cross-party working group will explore this and how to ensure all primary school children in the city have free weekly access to swimming lessons during school holidays.
The proposals were made by Labour Cllr Jessica Smith (Southcoates Ward) at the latest full council meeting during Drowning Prevention Week, an annual campaign run by Royal Life Saving Society UK to reinforce water safety awareness. It has been widely reported that the heatwave in late May saw at least 19 open water deaths in the UK, including at least 13 children.
“As the weather gets warmer, we see the same tragic stories repeated year after year,” said Cllr Smith. “Open water is unforgiving, it doesn’t matter how confident you are, it doesn’t matter how fit you are.”
She said what struck her during research for her proposal was the difference in the swimming ability of children from different backgrounds. “The statistics show that children from less advantaged families are significantly less able to be able to swim than their peers. I don’t think that’s acceptable. Swimming is not a luxury, it’s not an optional extra, it’s a key life skill.”
Her motion called for a cross-party working group to not only look at ongoing council-led education on the dangers of cold open water, but also how all primary school children in Hull can get free weekly access to the city’s leisure centres in school holidays for swimming lessons. It also called on the council to carry out a comprehensive promotional campaign on safe water-play practices and facilities.
On the possible restoration of a lido in East Park, Cllr Smith emphasised her proposal did not commit to this, but was to look at the cost and feasibility of doing it. Cllr Kalvin Neal (Liberal Democrat – Holderness) supported the motion but noted the former lido location in East Park is now taken up by an animal compound and a water play area. “Although it is something that could be looked at, potentially that isn’t the best place, it could be somewhere else that might be better.”
Deputy council leader Cllr Jackie Dad (Lib Dem) thanked Cllr Smith for raising the issue, stating it was “so important to all of us that we support it”. Cllr Martin Baker (Reform UK – Derringham) said he learnt to swim when younger because of water safety risks. “I got so good at it, I got asked to swim for the Olympics,” he said, but turned it down as he was “young and foolish”.
But he became lifeguard trained, although did not have to put such skills to action. “That’s purely down to when I was younger, enough children had the opportunity, which now has dissolved, which we’re trying to bring back,” he said, backing the proposal.
Labour group leader Cllr Daren Hale (St Andrews and Docklands) recalled working in children’s homes in the 1990s for Humberside County Council and a young male at Elgar Road going to a North Yorkshire visitor attraction waterfall area and dying. “Every time I see one of those,” he said, referring to open water deaths, “I still think about him every day. That’s what we’ve got to do, remember people like him that aren’t here to tell their story of how they survived, and we need to make sure there aren’t any more examples of that in the city.”
Cllr Smith said if the motion and working group “prevents even one family from that unimaginable grief of losing their child”, it will have been worth it.
By: Ivan Morris Poxton, LDRS
