Council leads the way on disability swimming

03.12.2007

Caerphilly County Borough Council is the first authority in Wales to provide swimming lessons for children with a disability across all leisure centres with pool facilities.

The authority is currently running weekly disability swimming sessions at Risca, Newbridge, Cefn Fforest, Heolddu and Caerphilly leisure centres, and a lesson is also starting up at Bedwas in January. In addition to these sessions, the council provides basic lessons at Caerphilly Children’s Centre.

To enable disabled people to further develop their swimming skills, four of the county borough’s leisure centres run disability swimming clubs. These are Risca, Caerphilly, Bedwas and Cefn Fforest. The club at Cefn Fforest is an adults only club, whereas ‘The Caerphilly Dragons’, coached by Paralympic swimming star David Roberts, is a competitive club for young people whose members compete at a high level.

Cllr David Hardacre, Cabinet Member for Education & Leisure, said, “The authority is committed to provide exercise and sporting opportunities for people of all backgrounds and ages, and the disability swimming classes have proved a great success with disabled children and their parents.”

To find out more about disability swimming sessions in your area, pop into your local leisure centre or call Disability Sports Officer Paul Taylor on 01443 863225.