SWIMMING clubs in Scotland are being forced out of business by the soaring price of pool hire, damaging the chances of producing future medal-winners.
Clubs face charges of up to £70,000 a year in hire fees alone, and the cost is being passed on to swimmers, who pay as much as £700 annually in fees.
Ten clubs across Scotland have disappeared in the past five years due to financial pressures,
leaving thousands of swimmers with nowhere to train.
And with the cost of pool heating rising even further, more clubs are expected to go bust in the next year.
Swimming clubs in Scotland have long waiting lists, some stretching to a year, because of the volume of people wanting to learn to swim or compete in the pool.
As there are only four 50m pools in the country – and only two of those are Olympic standard – there is pressure on facilities and the amount of water time available, which pushes prices up.
Scotland traditionally punches above its weight in swimming at an elite level. Some 10 of the 36-strong British squad in Beijing came from Scotland.
Swimmers such as Kirsty Balfour and Kris Gilchrist, who have come all the way through the club system in Scotland, are also strong hopes for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
But if pool hire charges, which are reliant on the cost of the energy needed to heat the pool 24 hours a day, continue to rise it could jeopardise the future of young swimmers.
One swimming coach from Fife, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The prices have just gone up again and our annual hire bill will increase by thousands. We don't have much choice because we are resident at the pool, so we are a captive audience.
"Our only choice is to raise our membership fees, but that's making it extremely expensive for the elite swimmers who need a lot of time in the water every week, and I'm worried some will not be able to carry on."
Richard Gordon, of Scottish Swimming, said the situation was reaching crisis point. He said: "We will inevitably lose several clubs over this, and the problem is there are fewer clubs emerging so there are fewer people practising swimming as a sport.
"We did a survey of clubs and most of them said they would willingly take on more members but they just can't get the water time, and with prices rising as they are that's not likely to change."
He added that swimming clubs at all levels were "absolutely essential" for identifying talented swimmers and taking them to an elite standard. He said: "Because many schools do not offer swimming as part of the curriculum, all our recruiting is done from clubs.
"The clubs run learn-to-swim programmes, which are very popular, and we watch children all the way through until they are 12 or 13, which is when you can identify talent.
But it puts even more pressure on clubs and facilities.
"The real problem with clubs going out of business is not only that swimmers have nowhere to train but also thousands of children will never even learn to swim."
