To think that my local swimming pool is outrageously expensive

[Missunreasonable]

I went swimming with one child this morning. This is a local council run pool. I didn't want to leave a lot of money in the locker so just took £5 and a £1 coin for the locker. I asked for an adult and child swim and the man said £5.80! Luckily I always keep a couple of pound coins in the car for parking and supermarket trolleys etc so I went and got another one for the locker.
That seems extortionate to me. My local private gym charges £30 per month for unlimited use and has a full fitness suite with gym, sauna, pool etc.
Am I just out of touch with prices of leisure facilities or is this very expensive? It seems expensive to me because the town I used to live in charges £5 for a family swim of two adults and two children but I am prepared to accept that this might not be the norm.

[shotyourfox]

YANBU. My local pool charges £3.90 for an adult swim and £2.90 for a child. it is a council run pool aswell. Swimming is definitely not a cheap activity anymore.

[Missunreasonable]

Glad it's not just me being a tight arse and that somebody else thinks it is expensive

[LemonBreeland]

My local pool seems to have so many different prices I'm not sure what is going on half of the time. For me and DD who is under 5, so cheaper, it costs 4.50 ish. My DSes don't have to pay as I spend 18 per month on direct debits for swimming lessons. This means that they can swim free any other time.

[treaclesoda]

Ours is a similar price, but yes, I do think its very expensive.

[Frontier]

Yes, I always think that until I try and arrange something else for DCs to do in the hols. I can't think of anything cheaper TBH.

£8-£10 to hire a badminton court for an hour. £7+ for a cinema ticket and don't get me started on bowling.

[PinkSquash]

Two adults and 1 DC is £13 here and you have to oay to park. Ridiculous.

[ICanSeeTheSun]

You know there will be a lot of posters who will say how vile pools are.

£5.80 for 2 people to swim isn't that bad tbh. If you think how expensive it must be to run.

[pukkabo]

Yanbu. Costs us (2 adults and 3 DC aged 4 and under) £12.80 to 'swim' for an hour.

[MilkandCereal]

I thought that it seemed about average,but just looked at my local pool,which I don't use, and it's £2.60 for a non member adult. £1.95 for non member child,and under 5s go free.

[MilkandCereal]

And

[MilkandCereal]

And £7.10 for non member family pass. 2 adults + 4 children.

That does seem much more reasonable.

[HarrietSchulenberg]

I am just about to pay £8 for me and 3 children to swim for an hour and a half (get chucked out at 4 when swimming lessons start). Am fine with that.

[Purpleroxy]

Yabu
Swimming pools apparently cost a fortune to heat and they're all loss making so cutting the cost just makes things worse for the council. £5.80 for an adult and a child is therefore reasonable IMO.

Or your swimming pool building could get demolished, the pool filled in and an Aldi built on the site. Is that preferable?

[Staryyeyedsurprise]

Yes, I think it is expensive. It was a bit cheaper when I had a monthly membership but that was on the basis I would go at least twice a week. Unfortunately due to lesiure centres now having to be more commercial I can't get there twice a week (despite having four pools to choose from) due to the swimming clubs/schools hiring, aqua running, aqua aerobics, pool parties etc.

[tinkerbellvspredator]

Ours is £8.95 for one adult and one child (family of 4 is £10.30 so better value). Outskirts of London normal leisure centre. Next time I will be pretending DD is still 3 and therefore free.

[MilkandCereal]

You can swim as long as you like for that too.

[Namechangearoonie123]

I think they should be free

We've taken a step backwards as a society charging so much for them

[MilkandCereal]

How long do you get to swim for your £5.80? Because if it's unlimited,then it seems fairly reasonable.

[unlucky83]

Our local one - which has slides and a wave pool etc - at the weekend/after school last time all of us went cost £17 for 2 adults, 2 children for 1.5 hrs I think....
It is cheaper during school hours!!! - when the waves don't come on
There are a couple of 'normal' swimming pools we could go to - don't know how much they cost - but they are harder for us to get to ...
And there is a leisure pool place - which is as good if not better - but about 20 miles away and that cost £12.80 for a family of 4...

Agree it is ridiculously expensive ...discourages families on limited income from exercise...kind if thing I think should be more heavily subsided.

[firstchoice]

£18.80 for family ticket at ours (2 adults + 2 kids)

£4.80 per adult, 4.50 per kid.

Swim lessons cost me £35 per month for two of them
(and they ain't great, either!).

[Missunreasonable]

It is usually for an unlimited time but today it was just an hour because a lot of the local schools are still in term time and having swimming lessons so public times are restricted.

I understand about the running costs being eye watering but surely more people would use the facilities if they were not so expensive, plus it is a council pool and running costs should be subsidised by the council.
I also understand about other things being very expensive for kids but we can do the cineworld kids mornings at £1.50 per ticket and we can go over to the town where we used to,live which has cheaper swimming and lots of highly subsidised kids activities such as tennis and multi sports. Most sports sessions cost £1 during the holidays in my old town, in my current town it's almost £8 a session!

[Freckletoes]

YABU doesn't sound like a lot to me.

[LongTimeLurking]

YANBU. I would not want to pay £6 to swim around in other peoples bodily fluids.

[vickibee]

6 for Adults and 5 for kids but it is a fun pool with slides and wave machines. 17.00 for Dh, Ds and I, a lot of  for an hour's swimming. We don't even like going as it is always packed but Ds loves it and pesters ....