Could reopening closed pools reduce open-water deaths?

Campaigners behind plans to reopen a Victorian lido say revitalising closed swimming facilities would help children learn how to stay safe in water.

The Friends of Otley Lido hope to restore and reopen the lido in Otley, West Yorkshire, to create a safe place for people to swim and socialise.

This is something the group say is especially important in light of the number of deaths in open water since a series of heatwaves began in May.

Leonie Sharp, chair of Friends of Otley Lido said closing open-air swimming pools nationwide "certainly hasn't helped", as many children now leave primary school without proper training in how to swim.

Over the summer months, Yorkshire has seen at least four deaths in open water - including 13-year-old Palwasha Akbar, from Bradford, who died after getting into difficulty in the River Wharfe near Burnsall on 31 May.

A few days earlier, 13-year-old Reco Puttock died after he was pulled from Leadbeater Dam in Halifax.

Muhammed Secka, 16, died after getting into difficulty in a lake in Rother Valley Country Park, South Yorkshire, on 25 May.

His inquest was told he was unable to swim.

Eleven-year-old Mackenzie Swift died after going missing in the River Don in South Yorkshire on 30 May.

There have been at least 29 deaths in open water across the UK since the spell of record-breaking hot weather, which began in May.

Sharp says offering the community the chance to swim in a lido is a safer alternative than swimming in open water and could provide the crucial opportunity for those who are nervous swimmers to learn in a less dangerous environment.

"It certainly hasn't helped to close so many swimming pools up and down the country and certainly when we reopen a lido, it's going to provide additional provision for local children to learn to swim," she said.

"Our [lido] is going to be a lot safer, a healthier place to swim and a supervised place to swim - which I think is really important for the community," she said.

Sharp says she thinks it is unlikely people will stop swimming in rivers and open water altogether.

"We've got photographs of people swimming in rivers in the 1910s and 1920s, it's not going to stop, but at least if people learn how to swim safer, it's going to stop and prevent deaths and tragedies we've had in recent months."

Despite receiving support and small donations from the local community, the community group is now looking for around £3.44m in extra funding to kickstart its regeneration programme.

It wants to see a state-of-the-art lido opened on the original site of Otley Lido, alongside a new riverside cafe, public toilets and further development of the surrounding area, which is classed as Green Belt land.

Otley Lido opened in 1924, and was a popular day out for people in the surrounding area, taking advantage of the interest in recreational swimming and leisure at the turn of the 20th Century. It closed in 1993.

Friends of Otley Lido have since secured an exclusivity clause with Leeds City Council, which gives them 12 months to draw up a plan to fund, restore and reopen the site.

Ian Lawson is the director and treasurer of the Otley Lido project.

In 2004, Lawson rowed for Team GB at the Olympics in Athens and before that, was a keen swimmer.

He said opening more public swimming pools is "part of the solution" around water safety.

"We need people to enjoy open water safely and part of that is to ensure there are swimming lessons available.

"There's a water safety and survival aspect to it as well and to some extent, those two are linked," he said.

He admitted that a lack of public pools and lidos creates an "inevitability" that adults and children will instead choose to swim in reservoirs, lakes and rivers - which could put them in danger.

While training for Team GB, Lawson said he spent a lot of time in swimming pools and that feeling comfortable in them is key to enjoying any water-based activity.

He wants to see more people take up water sports.

Lawson said: "We know life chances for children are improved if they undertake [an] activity and we know for older people, it's keeping them fit, healthy and reducing the impact on the NHS and therefore the taxpayer".

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