Healthy Swimming Guidelines

Accidents do happen:
Sometimes people have ‘accidents’ in the swimming pools. This can include babies with poorly fitting nappies, excitable children who can’t wait to get to the toilet people who feel unwell and those in care of others.

Most of the time there will be nothing in the water which the chlorine can’t deal with. There is a possibility that someone who has been unwell, including upset stomachs or diarrhoea, could bring in a bug called cryptosporidium.

The cleaning process :

• If there has been an ‘accident’ in the pool, the first thing we will do is ask all bathers to leave the pool and use the showers. If the centre has other pools we may be able to allow swimming to continue in that other pool.
• The affected pool will need to be treated for several hours (the length of time is different for each pool).
• We will then need to clean the pool filtration system.
• Finally we will need to make sure that the water is chemically balanced again and warmed up ready for bathers.
• Doing all this can take us between 14 and 24 hours and means our bathers cannot use the pools during this time.
• We also have to use more water and chemicals than usual.

Please help us to keep the pool water sparkling by:

• Not eating for an hour or so before swimming.
• Using the toilets before you swim.
• Having a shower before entering the pool.
• Making sure that children who are not fully potty trained wear swim nappies (available from reception).
• If needed use incontinence protection under bathing clothes.

Much as we like to see you, there are times when you shouldn’t swim:

• If you are feeling unwell.
• If you have just eaten a meal or taken a fizzy drink.
• If you have had diarrhoea in the last two weeks.
• If you have any open wounds.