Sink or swim

ADULT swimmers attempting crawl stroke in the shallow end of Bexhill Leisure Pool find their fingers scratch the pool bottom.

Because of obstructions, coaches cannot walk the full length of the poolside to follow a swimmer's progress.

The flume is fun. But it only serves to emphasise that the town's 18-year-old leisure pool is just that '“ a leisure pool, not somewhere to train competitors for county, let alone regional or national-level swimming.

In neighbouring Hastings the pool is 27 years old. Like Bexhill, it can't offer competitive swimmers the full-course training they need.

Only a 50-metre pool could do that. And they cost a cool 14m. Between them the Bexhill, Hastings and 1066 swimming clubs have already done well with their joint approach to the problem.

On behalf of nearly 1,000 aspiring competitive swimmers in the two towns they have put forward a well-researched and well-argued case.

The solution, they suggest, is for the two local authorities to put together a joint project team and take a long, hard look at the possibility of replacing the two smaller pools with a single 50-metre pool.

They argue that two smaller pools would cost 7.9m each while a single pool would cost just under 14m.

On paper, this is a "saving."

On paper...

Hopefully, the two authorities, already in discussion, will do as the clubs suggest and pay careful consideration to the case they have put forward.

We wish that process well. Much good could come from it. Britain is only four years away from hosting the Olympic Games. When 2012 comes we shall doubtless witness yet again the sorry spectacle of valiant British sportsmen and women battling against odds made near-insuperable by the facilities and back-up certain highly-competitive nations bestow on their progeny.

Sadly, Britain is not a superpower. Neither, thankfully, is it a totalitarian state, prepared to make otherwise unacceptable sacrifices in the quest for national glory.

Politicians and officers in Bexhill and Hastings will have to face some hard realities if they are to find the means to satisfy the swimmers' plea for a local training base.

Swimming club officers are realists. Their submission does not attempt to hide two key problems '“ cost and location.

To find 14m between them would, even given a best-case scenario in which the Lottery Fund, Sport England and other fairy godmothers played a strong part, be difficult.

Finding a mutually-acceptable site would require the wisdom of Solomon.

The obvious equi-distant site would be the Glyne Gap field. But, for good and valid reasons, this is enshrined in planning policy to be conserved as a "green wedge" between Bexhill and its neighbour.

Without it we would be reduced to becoming a featureless conurbation.

One possibility seized on by the clubs is the potential of the space which will be opened up behind the towns when (if) the Link Road is built, the countryside park.

We sincerely hope that the swimmers' suggestion will not be dismissed because of these difficulties but will be studied with care.

The swimmers have employed some "lateral thinking" to come up with their proposition. Let us hope the two authorities can do the same and find a solution for the benefit of all.

It would be to their lasting credit it they could.