More Fife kids in the swim!

Fife Sports and Leisure Trust saw 66,907 children and young people enjoy free swimming compared to 62,737 last year, an increase of 6.6 per cent.

The trust’s ‘Splash-out-for-Nowt’ initiative was on offer again this summer thanks to additional funding from Fife Council.

The special promotion gave juniors aged 17 and under free access to the trust’s nine swimming pools across the region during the school holidays.

The scheme is part of the organisation’s drive to get more young people active more of the time. Encouragingly, attendance figures for 2013-14 showed that under-16s, a key target user group for the trust, was up 11.66 per cent.

Ed Watson, chief executive for Fife Sports and Leisure Trust, said, “The ability to engage with children and young people and encourage them to get more active is a key objective for the trust.

“We are encouraged that not only has general use of our facilities by young people increased but that we saw such a good response to the free swimming offer over the summer.

“Staff in all our centres work hard to deliver a range of programmes and initiatives to suit all ages and abilities – we offer some of the best qualified instructors and affordable activities which give families a fantastic choice of sports and physical activities, encouraging a lifelong interest in staying active.” Councillor Mark Hood, executive committee member, said, “We’re committed to helping children and young people access sporting and physical activity opportunities. I’m delighted that the council-funded free swim initiative has been so popular again this year.

“An average of over 9500 children a week took advantage of the offer during the summer holidays.

“This undoubtedly contributes towards improving their health and wellbeing and I hope it encourages many to visit their local swimming pool more regularly.” For full details on Fife Sports and Leisure Trust’s holiday and term-time junior activities, visit www.fifeleisure.org.uk.