Steve met coaches Kevin Terry and Stewart Crowe as well as parents (pictured) who were keen to enlist support for the club’s campaign to bring a new competition standard swimming pool to Winchester.
They also discussed the pressures of finding sufficient pool time in the local area. The club’s access to training pool time will be reduced during the scheduled six-month closure of River Park Leisure Centre planned for 2011 which will carry out essential health and safety maintenance work on the 35-year-old complex. Work is estimated to cost in the region of £1.5 to 2 million – the second such injection of council funding in five years. The closure will mean the non-profit-making swimming club will lose their main venue for training and swimming lessons with potentially serious financial and training implications in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.
Penguin’s spokesperson, Alison Fenwick, said, “Given the current success of British swimming and the high level of interest generated by the 2012 Olympics, it seems short-sighted that this further injection of council funding to lengthen the life of an environmentally inefficient building, will not provide the community with a competition standard swimming pool".
Steve Brine added; “I want Winchester to have the very best in every area. We now have an Olympic standard running track at Bar End and we should aspire to have a swimming pool of the highest standard as well. From discussions I have had with Winchester City Council I know there simply isn’t the money available to rebuild the River Park as if from scratch and any such plan is likely to always be beyond the reach of local taxpayers. I would like to see a clear signal of intent from an incoming Conservative Government that it is prepared to at least help bring world-class facilities like this to cities such as Winchester for both sporting and long-term health benefit.”
Winchester City Penguins Swimming Club has over 650 club members, including top county swimmers, a competitive masters’ squad and lessons children. Winchester ’s swimmers have to travel to Aldershot to train in a 50 m pool and have no access to the recently opened facility in Portsmouth. The club is currently in discussions with interested parties, supporting them in their bid for a new competition standard swimming pool in the local area.
For further information on the Winchester City Penguins please visit the club’s website at www.wcpsc.org.uk