8:00am Friday 28th November 2008
By Emma Palmer
PENSIONERS in Basildon will not get free swimming sessions after the council opted out of a scheme to scrap charges.
Basildon Council has come under fire for not taking part in a Government-backed initiative offering the over-sixties free entry to council-run pools.
Every council was offered a share of a £15million fund to provide free swims for the elderly.
However, Tory council leader Malcolm Buckley was not keen and branded the scheme an “early election gimmick”.
He said: “We’ve been quite open about this all along.
“It’s not that we don’t want to give free swimming, it’s the money for this will last for about two years and then be stopped.
“Then we’ll have to either scrap the service, which we will be widely criticised for, or find the funding ourselves, and that would mean cutting services elsewhere.”
Basildon has three public pools at Gloucester Park, Rectory Park Drive, Pitsea, and Market Avenue, Wickford.
Mr Buckley added: “This is just like the free bus pass scheme. The Government said it would fully fund it, but it failed to do so and the responsibility has fallen to councils to find the cash.”
Swatantra Nandanwar, Labour Vange councillor, was dismayed by the decision.
He said: ‘This would have been an ideal opportunity to get more of our elderly people into swimming, and swimming is the best form of exercise for all ages.”
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