According to the Maldon and Burnham Standard, Essex, lives are being put at risk on waterways in the area:
YOUNG people are putting their lives in danger, risking disease, and breaking bye-laws on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation.
Several incidents of antisocial behavior have been reported on the waterway, which connects the tidal estuary from the river Blackwater at Heybridge Basin with Chelmsford, and now police are warning this sort of behavior cannot continue.
Hidden currents and rubbish can trap swimmers, unexpected changes in depths can lead to difficulties and swimming or bathing is described as very dangerous.
Those jumping into the navigation are also at risk of disease such as Leptospirosis - also known as Weil’s disease - which can cause severe illness.
Under the bye-laws it is an offense to swim within 36 metres of a lock or to jump or dive from any lock or other structure.
I am wondering if this has anything to do with Maldon District Council ending free swimming in March. Free swimming was very popular, resulting in a 21% increase in people using the local swimming pool, but now it seems the local waterways are the only place some people can afford to go, even if it means risking their lives.
At least Maldon Council still has a swimming pool. Nationwide public swimming pools are being closed almost as fast as Maggie Thatcher sold off the school playing fields. In London there were 96 public diving facilities in 1977, there are now just six, a 94 per cent loss. And then they wonder why kids are jumping in canals?
A government backed initiative costing £5.5 million was earmarked for top-up swimming lessons for 11-year-olds in 2006 after it was found that one in five children could not swim 25 metres due to obesity. But another government plan is destroying school swimming pools as fast as it can. It has been estimated that 2,000 [out of 3,000] school pools will have closed by the end of the 'Building Schools for the Future' program. This has been systematically destroying school pools in favor of more class room blocks.
For adults as well as children, the main threat to the local swimming pool, and possibly their lives, is that councils are not required by law to provide swimming pools, so when they have to cut something, swimming pools are one of the first public amenities to be closed down, often forever.
The latest front line in the battle for Britain's swimming pools is in Birmingham where local people from Sparkhill and Balsall Heath recently staged a public protest against Birmingham City Council. The Council is about to spend £10 million, partly funded by the NHS, for free swimming, gym and exercise classes to all residents in the city. Trouble is they have closed most of the swimming pools in the city, and have been allowing the remaining ones to fall into disrepair.
Perhaps we should start converting parts of the canals and other waterways into Safe Swimming Zones. With fewer and fewer swimming pools available, kids and adults alike are going to continue risking their necks for a swim in the canals, lakes, rivers and waterways, and some will end up drowning for sure.
