Monday 5 December 2011

Local swimming pool annoyance

A new company has taken over my local leisure centre, which is great because the last company were pretty awful.

However, the new company have produced their website about the leisure centre, and it's about as informative as the inside of a crisp packet.

Here's their information about their pool facilities:

"Swimming is a great opportunity to use every muscle and joint in your body. Our swimming pool is for both recreational and fitness purposes. Having shallow and a deep end makes it accessible for young, old, able bodies and disabled customers to use our pools.

Ask a member of staff about our variety of swimming paths we have to follow.

Whether it is just general swimming or Swim School or 1-2-1 swimming lessons you are sure to find both enjoyable and fitness benefits in our pools.

See our timetables for general swimming sessions available to you. And remember that we change our timetable at least every three months to get the best sessions available to our customers."

Timetables and prices are PDFs stashed over in a sidebar.

Is it just me, or is that not particularly helpful? And where's their disability access information? I'm guessing access info isn't actually a legal requirement, but surely a council pool's website should be telling you:

* Is there level or stepped access to the centre.
* Presence of a T-coil in the reception area for hearing aid users.
* Presence of a hoist to get in / out of the pool.
* Whether there's steps or a slope to get into the pool.
* Presence of disabled access changing rooms.
* Availability of accessible shower facilities - shower chair / seat in the shower / hands free showering.
* Changing facilities for adults that need a PA to assist them.
* Dimensions of the pool.

Just to start off with?

I refuse to believe including that information would be magically more expensive for the site designer to include, and a company running a pool should know that stuff, so they won't have to pay someone to tell them it.

It's just lazy and ignorant, as far as I can see.