The Culture, Media and Sport Committee
has agreed to the following Report:
SECOND REPORT
TESTING THE WATERS: THE SPORT OF SWIMMING
INTRODUCTION
"Swimming is the best all round sport for
our health. It is the least discriminating, certainly in age and
ability and it has the highest appeal in the nation. Some honourable
Member here mentioned that we cannot afford to do it. Well, we
are not a third rate country, we are not a third world country,
we are the third largest economy in the world and we darn well
should afford it." - Duncan Goodhew,
MBE.[1]
1. On 9 November we announced an evidence session
into the sport of swimming. We set out three provisional issues
for consideration:
- historic swimming pools, and the problems affecting
these listed buildings
- swimming facilities available in communities
- facilities and training support available for
competitive swimmers.
2. The scale of the response was extremely encouraging.
We received over 45 submissions from a wide range of witnesses,
including local swimming clubs, coaches, ex-athletes, parents
of potential athletes, managers of local pools, campaigners for
the protection of pools and regular swimmers with a love of the
sport.
3. On 4 December 2001 we heard oral evidence from
representatives from English Heritage; Victoria Baths Campaign,
Manchester; Haggerston Pool Campaign, Hackney; Friends of Marshall
Street Baths, Soho; Govanhill Pool, Glasgow; the Institute of
Sport and Recreation Management; Sport England; the Amateur Swimming
Association; and Olympic medallists Anita Lonsbrough, MBE, Duncan
Goodhew, MBE and Sharron Davies MBE. We received a memorandum
from the Local Government Association, and a joint memorandum
from the Departments for Culture, Media and Sport, Education and
Skills and Transport, Local Government and the Regions. This evidence
is set out in this volume after the Report. We did not seek oral
evidence from the Government nor local authorities given the constraints
of time.
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