Just how big a problem are swimmers ? Kids

Perhaps all these 'reality' shows in which people cliff-dive and generally muck about in water as though they own the place are giving youths ideas.
The concept of property has by-passed the last couple of generations.

Well who can blame them really with house prices being so ridiculous unless mum and dad do the banking a lot of young people will never afford to own their own home.
So if that is the projected future why would you respect property ownership?
 
Well who can blame them really with house prices being so ridiculous unless mum and dad do the banking a lot of young people will never afford to own their own home.
So if that is the projected future why would you respect property ownership?

+100 %.

"Bourne end" the beach opposite the sailing club was an official bathing area for example and there is a large car park beside the station so that could work again.
+1.
 
Didn't a young lad drown swimming from the Bourne-End beach earlier this year!

As previously posted this isn't a new problem and will always continue unless you make swimming in the river illegal, the lockdown seemed to bring a lot out but the loutish behaviour its not as bad as I remember it back in the 70's and 80's when they used to hang off your fenders and climb up the back of the boat etc...
 
IF riverside land is designated access land then it is in fact illegal under the CROW act of 2000 to bathe in non tidal rivers.

So it it became a problem it would potentially be possible to designate the land as access land thus invoking schedule 2(i) as shown here:


I think a lot of the swimmers (not the yobbo types) will be aware of this.

Screenshot_2021-07-26-13-56-08-177_com.android.chrome.jpg
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000


This also means you are not allowed to walk your cat on access land as it is restricted to dogs only.
I'm not a lawyer !
 
No idea about the other drownings but the ones in Loch Lomond are likely because it's bloody cold and people not used to cold water get lulled by the warm(er) shallow water by the shore, swim a short distance and find themselves in much colder, deeper water and get rapidly into trouble, cramps etc. Then good samaritans often follow and end up drowning too.
When I was a child in Glasgow, 50 year ago, we were warned about swimming in Loch Lomond for just the reasons you say: after a shallow shelving edge it gets very deep and very cold very quickly. I'm generally in favour of letting people take responsibility for themselves, but it would seem reasonable to have big warning signs on the attractive beaches around Loch Lomond.
 
As previously posted this isn't a new problem and will always continue unless you make swimming in the river illegal, the lockdown seemed to bring a lot out but the loutish behaviour its not as bad as I remember it back in the 70's and 80's when they used to hang off your fenders and climb up the back of the boat etc...

+1
...can remember complaints about yoof causing problems up at Yalding and the upper Medway back in the mists of time....................
Its nothing new and bit of perspective might come in useful sometimes ?
Suspect my Grandad despaired about my Dad and his generation and as to what my Dad thought about me and my generation of disrespectful, idle, know it all bunch of no hopers , is not a mystery. :)
Funny how things come right in the end tho innit.
 
When I was a child in Glasgow, 50 year ago, we were warned about swimming in Loch Lomond for just the reasons you say: after a shallow shelving edge it gets very deep and very cold very quickly. I'm generally in favour of letting people take responsibility for themselves, but it would seem reasonable to have big warning signs on the attractive beaches around Loch Lomond.
There was more info about the Loch Lomond tragedy today. Apparently a 7yr old child was playing at the end of a pier. He fell in and his older brother, mother and an adult friend jumped in to try and save him. Tragically none of the three could swim and all drowned but the 7yr old was rescued by an unrelated adult.
It just illustrated the importance of being able to swim. If you cannot, best not to get anywhere near water?
 
There was more info about the Loch Lomond tragedy today. Apparently a 7yr old child was playing at the end of a pier. He fell in and his older brother, mother and an adult friend jumped in to try and save him. Tragically none of the three could swim and all drowned but the 7yr old was rescued by an unrelated adult.
It just illustrated the importance of being able to swim. If you cannot, best not to get anywhere near water?


Thanks for those details , explains a lot.

There was once a drive (and funding) to get every child to a pool at some point in their school life within school time to learn to swim, or ar least how to react if you could not swim. ???
An erroenous memory on my part or actually true. ?
 
Last edited:
Both my children had swimming sessions in school time at the local leisure centre. That was through the school which is a state (non academy) primary school in a deprived part of inner east London. It was and is part of the curriculum.

I don't know if other schools do this or are allowed to do it but ours certainly does which is good.
 
IF riverside land is designated access land then it is in fact illegal under the CROW act of 2000 to bathe in non tidal rivers.

So it it became a problem it would potentially be possible to designate the land as access land thus invoking schedule 2(i) as shown here:


I think a lot of the swimmers (not the yobbo types) will be aware of this.

View attachment 119561
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000


This also means you are not allowed to walk your cat on access land as it is restricted to dogs only.
I'm not a lawyer !
That appears to me (also not a lawyer) to say that access rights don't apply if you are sailing, or metal detectoring, or whatever, not that sailing or metal detectoring or whatever is illegal. You can do them, but they don't come with access rights.
 
Both my children had swimming sessions in school time at the local leisure centre. That was through the school which is a state (non academy) primary school in a deprived part of inner east London. It was and is part of the curriculum.

I don't know if other schools do this or are allowed to do it but ours certainly does which is good.

......................none of my grandkids in Kent schools have any swimming lessons organised by their school. Their mum who works in different school is pretty certain the situation is the same where she works.
My gang all attend private swimming lessons held at weekends in the pool of a local academy school.
 
Thanks for those details , explains a lot.

There was once a drive (and funding) to get every child to a pool at some point in their school life within school time to learn to swim, or ar least how to react if you could not swim. ???
An erroenous memory on my part or actually true. ?
We used to get in a charabanc (with wooden seats) to go to Beverley for school swimming lessons when I was at primary school. Late 50s. (The date, not my age)
 
We used to get in a charabanc (with wooden seats) to go to Beverley for school swimming lessons when I was at primary school. Late 50s. (The date, not my age)

Yup .................exactly the same here during the 1950s/60s .
....................Vague recollections that the chap organising our trips was later detained at Her Majesties Pleasure in disgrace.
The pool was run by the scouts (Buckmore Park) and basically was four breeze block walls, freezing cold water and as many doses of instant athlete's foot that anyone could ever wish for.
The smell of clorine makes me shudder to this day. :)
 
The same councils that whine about there not being enough custom at their swimming pools have no obligation to give lessons to school children; I wonder how these problems could be solved? :unsure:
 
The same councils that whine about there not being enough custom at their swimming pools have no obligation to give lessons to school children; I wonder how these problems could be solved? :unsure:

Bit of Fred drift, suspect that simply not enough time spare in a school week//day/ month to spend half a day shipping the nippers to and back from the the local public swimming pool.
Let alone the logistics and cost of the expedition.
 
What is it that primary school children are doing that they can't spare 30 hrs out of the curriculum? It's balls, swimming is good for them as well as a life(and life-saving) skill.
 
What is it that primary school children are doing that they can't spare 30 hrs out of the curriculum? It's balls, swimming is good for them as well as a life(and life-saving) skill.

Finding a pool is sometimes the issue if you don't have one on-site and very few do now.
 
Top