AN ISLE of Wight swimming school has made the difficult decision to halt swimming lessons for the foreseeable future – because taking over the swimming pool at Gurnard Pines isn’t viable.

It has made a decision based on the government scaling back its Energy Support Scheme

Some organisations have been lobbying to get swimming pools reclassified – to qualify for greater discounts on energy prices.

Elite School of Swimming, which operated out of Gurnard Pines, says the landlord approached the family-run business after the pool's sudden closure, to see if it would like to take over the operation and running costs.

But, after reviewing the running costs, repairs and maintenance required, the school says it isn’t a business proposition it can make work.

Last month, GUPI Properties Limited, which runs Gurnard Pines, claimed a lease on part of the complex had been forfeited by a different organisation.

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In an email to leisure club users on Monday, January 30, the leaseholder behind the gym and swimming pool said it had been locked out of the building and had ceased trading.

The entire complex was locked, pending refurbishment until March, hitting the swimming school which had also been teaching there.

Tonight (Friday), there has been an update.

Elite School of Swimming utilised the pool for 18 hours a week," said a spokesperson on social media. 

“A pool of this size needs to be open in excess of 12 hours a day, and this would result in the pool operator needing to find a lot of pool activity to fill this void.

“Our lessons are full to capacity, and operate over six days a week at times when children are available for swimming lessons.

“The pool time not utilised for swimming lessons would have to be filled to capacity with other pool users and member swim times.

“When the previous leaseholder's company went into liquidation, all swim and gym memberships were cancelled, so, as things stand, the pool at Gurnard currently has no swim members.

“Any pool operator now looking to take on the pool operation will be reliant on swim members returning and agreeing to a new membership, as there is no membership list to work from.

“We have therefore had to make the extremely hard decision to stop our swimming lessons for the time being.

“If someone comes forward to take over the pool operation and its entire running costs, we will of course seek agreement with them to continue our successful lessons at Gurnard Pines.

“In the meantime, we will explore continuing our lessons at other venues.

“We are completely devastated that we cannot continue the lessons, and very sad that for the time being our thriving business has to be put on hold for reasons outside of our control."