2:26pm Thursday 26th November 2009
By Tom Parkes
PENSIONERS have given up swimming at Colchester Leisure World because recently-installed steps have made it is too difficult for them to climb into the water.
Christina and John Barkham are not mobile enough to use replacement steps, which have been introduced to the fitness pool as part of a £380,000 revamp.
They were able to walk down the old stairs, but the new ones are designed like a ladder, and must be clambered down backwards.
Attendants have a hoist to lower disabled swimmers into the water, but the Barkhams – and friends who swim at the same times – are unwilling to go through the hassle of using it.
Mrs Barkham, 72, from Lays Road, Wivenhoe, said: “We don’t want to be thrown into the water, and there is no need because we could have just used the steps. I don’t know why they have taken them away.
“We have been given a free pass to the pool, but now we are being denied access to the water.
A lot of my friends now can’t go any more and it is not just older people who will be affected.
“There are young people who aren’t quite so mobile or who are carrying an injury.”
Mrs Barkham, who has written to Leisure World to ask for the steps to be reinstated, is not the only swimmer to have lodged a complaint.
Lexden teacher Jutta Austin has told pool chiefs she now finds sessions an ordeal, as getting into the pool hurts her legs and knees.
Swimming is the only exercise the 60-year-old can do because she has arthritis.
Bosses at Leisure World said the new steps had been put in after consultation with the Colchester Phoenix Amateur Swimming Club, which caters for disabled people.
They conform to the industry standard but are wider than the norm, making them easier to descend.
Sharon Carter, Leisure World spokesman, said: “The previous set of stairs used for accessing the fitness pool had become damaged over time, and there were health and safety concerns because of this.
“To accommodate the fitness pool’s busy timetable, the stairs had to regularly be moved in and out of the pool.
“This in turn caused damage to the pool floor tiles, the grout and the edging at the top of the pool.
“Regularly moving the steps in such a way was also unsuitable for staff, due to the shape and design of the steps.”
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