To think leisure centres are too expensive for many families?

[BettyBottersBetterButter]

AIBU to think many families simply can't afford to access most sporting facilities & council-run leisure centres in particular need to lower their prices if exercise is the key to tackling childhood obesity.

I'd like my DS to learn to swim & having dismissed most private classes costing £60/70 a term as too expensive I went to enrol him at swim school in the leisure centre - £115 for an 11 week term. He's 4 ffs . A gym session is £8 & exercise classes £7.50 and a family swim £12.75 . Ahh but it's ok if you're family want to come regularly you can get family membership giving unlimited use of the facilities: £150 A MONTH

Are these fees normal nowadays or do I live near the UK's priciest leisure centre (possible as it's an affluent area but surely not everyone's rolling in it)

I pay much less than that at Virgin too. Our leisure centre has lots of different memberships, not sure how much they all are are but 12 months swimming is £90. A class for a non member is £4.50. Swimming lessons are much cheaper too but my dcs swim at a swimming club, which is cheaper again plus you get a sibling discount.

What does seem a bit silly to me though, is that there is free swimming for children, but under 8 you need to have an adult with you. So maybe to encourage that, there should be reduced adult price if you are taking a child...?

Our local leisure centre has offers in the holidays - £1 per person for an hour's badminton/table tennis or short tennis.

We get free swimming due to being on benefits. However, I cant always afford the 2 overpriced buses there, and 2more back.

DS1s lessons are roughly £4 per lesson (30 mins), and booked in blocks of 11. Feels sensible against the cost of other baby activities like Tiny Talk at £5 for an hour as the pool costs will be higher. For a casual swimming session it's £2.50 for me and DC free as he is under 4.

Ours is £6.30 for adults and £3.70 for children

Swimming is FREE for all children in Wales during all school holidays

Great - for older kids. I have a 5 and 3 year old (so 2 adults needed to accompany) - that still puts a limit on how often we go...it's around £4 per adult. So these 'free ' session s still cost £8 a go, which probably limits lots of family's with under 7s.

Our swimming lessons I think are quite good value...I pay £45 per dc for a ten week course. Ds1 (5) has gone in that time from a complete non-swimmer to being able to swim a whole width unaided. It really is wonderful to watch and I do think swimming lessons for kids should be made more accessible to all.

He's also did a crash course last week, which was £12.50 for half an hour a day.

our lesiure centre has been tendered out to a private company though so is all about making money now.

Have you seen if your local pool has a community run swim group? we have one here which is very affordable compared to the ones run by the lesiure centrey, the group book out the pool so is separate but non profit making. Hope that makes sense!

Swimming is free for all under 16s in our local pools. I get in free as a carer now, but used to get a concessionary rate when I was on benefits. We also got concessionary rates on swimming lesson courses. I think it's £5.50 a lesson full price but £3.50 with a concessionary discount. It's £2.20 for adults to pay if they need to supervise a child.

There are loads of free summer holiday coaching sessions for dc as well, all kinds of activities like gym, tennis, basketball, football, dance. Unfortunately teenage DS isn't sporty at all so he's not interested! We're in a deprived inner London borough.