Mother begs council to keep swimming pool open

A mother says her severely disabled son could lose the only place where he is able to go swimming if a leisure centre in Leicester closes.

Leicester City Council is consulting on proposals that could see New Parks Leisure Centre close as part of plans to reshape leisure services across the city.

Susan Wilder said the centre was the only pool she has found that is able to accommodate her 19-year-old son, who is a full-time wheelchair user with complex physical, visual and hearing impairments.

The 67-year-old said swimming provided the only cardiovascular exercise he could do and gave him a sense of freedom, adding: "If I've got breath in my body, I'll fight for him."

Wilder said her son had been swimming at the centre for the past 19 years, attending once one week and twice the next.

"He loves the freedom of it and it's also the only cardiovascular exercise he gets," she said. "He has no speech, but he just generally loves the water."

Wilder said the centre's specialist facilities were essential because her son could not access a pool using a standard pool chair.

Instead, he requires a poolside changing room with a ceiling-track hoist and a changing bed.

"The bed comes out to the poolside and he is then hoisted from the changing bed into the pool," she said.

Wilder said her family had looked at alternatives, including facilities outside Leicestershire.

"We're willing to travel with him, we're willing to travel out of the county, but there's nowhere available to meet his needs," she said.

"A lot of disabled people can access a swimming pool using a chair, but people like my son can't," she said.

"You have to look at people's needs to be able to access a swimming pool in the correct way."

"It's not just for my son, it's for anybody that has the disabilities that he's got.

"I'm sure there's plenty of people that would like to go swimming."

She said losing access to swimming would have a significant impact on her son's wellbeing as he "absolutely adores" going to the pool.

Wilder also said her son had not been swimming since May because the centre's pool hoist was out of service.

Under the proposals, the city council plans to close what it described as the city's least-used leisure centre and spend £8m transforming Leicester Leys Leisure Centre.

However a petition to save it has been signed by more than 2,150 people.

Wilder said Leicester Leys centre would be too busy for her son, who has a multi-sensory impairment, including hearing and visual impairments, and he would not be able to swim there, even if a hoist was installed.

She added she feared New Parks's future had already been decided.

Leicester City Council said as part of the consultation process it had spoken to a range of swimming pool users to understand their individual requirements and explore opportunities to meet their needs at other sites.

A spokesperson said: "The consultation remains open until 3 November and all feedback will be considered as part of the final decision-making process."

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