Hundreds of members of the local Cowes community, alongside UKSA beneficiaries and local schools, are going to be left with no swimming pool.
The pool at UKSA is in desperate need of refurbishment due to the deteriorating system and the local Island charity simply cannot afford the repairs.
UKSA needs to raise £250,000 to carry out a full refurbishment on its residential pool so that it can continue to welcome over 20,000 children and young people every year.
Will you help them?
UKSA has been forced to reduce the user capacity from February 2024, meaning hundreds of members of the local Cowes community will have nowhere to go.
Local children and community groups will no longer have access to their only local facility, including 100+ babies and toddlers from the local Water Babies Group, 40+ older users from the Cowes Aqua Fit Group and 336 children doing swimming lessons through ‘Emma’s Otters’ every week.
Pool could close
UKSA will strive to keep the pool functioning at this reduced capacity to enable it to continue its student delivery and to provide a service for the local Primary School sessions.
However, if the deterioration continues before the funds can be raised, it will need to stop all use of the pool.
Repairs no longer enough
UKSA’s swimming pool has multiple repairs completed each year to enable the heating system and the filtration system in the pool to continue to run.
However, the repairs are no longer enough, and the pool needs to be refurbished and set up for commercial use.
The filtration system is continuously breaking due to increased demand and parts are no longer available from suppliers due to the age of the pool, which has lead to long pool closures disrupting the availability for our local community and charity beneficiaries.
Sweeting: The last thing we want to do is close our pool doors
Amy Sweeting, Director of Fundraising says,
“Offering our pool to the community is incredibly important to us at UKSA.
“Given the recent reduced facilities on the Island, the last thing we want to do is close our pool doors knowing there is no other option.
“Instead, we need to fix the pool so we can increase our community access and provide a safer environment. But we simply cannot afford the cost alone. Your local charity is calling on our local community to reach our fundraising goal, will you help us?”
To donate to UKSA’s ‘Just Keep Swimming’ fund visit the website.
News shared by Elisha on behalf of UKSA. Ed
