CUTS to funding for school lessons at Aberaeron swimming pool will put the lives of local children at risk, it was claimed this week.

Pool manager Martine Branford and her staff have reacted with dismay to Ceredigion County Council’s plan to find savings of around £88,000 from the budgets for swimming pool provision. The move will see lessons for primary school pupils reduced by about a third and lessons for secondary school pupils slashed altogether.

“This pool is used by 10 primary schools so these cuts will affect hundreds of children,” Ms Branford told the Cambrian News. “I just think it’s so short-sighted and will result in major problems later on.

“The bottom line is that there will be far less opportunity for children to learn to swim from now on. What you’ll find is that there will be fewer numbers leaving primary school able to swim.

“Here in Aberaeron we have the River Aeron, we have weirs, we have the harbour, we have North Beach, we have South Beach – we are surrounded by water.

“In the 15 years I have been here local children have been learning to swim in structured lessons – what happens to them now?”

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