HAVING read some of the letters in the Sunderland Echo about the Sunderland Aquatic Centre I felt I needed to put pen to paper.

My 18 month-old son and I were one of the first to use the Sunderland Aquatic Centre when it opened in April.

Our first visit was not great and I didn't feel the facility was geared up for people with young children.

The changing rooms were without baby chairs – a must for parents with energetic toddlers and I was stopped from taking a dry towel to the side of the pool – the result a very cold, wet, crying child when we had to get out.

I came away from that first visit disappointed. We were really looking forward to using the pool after we'd heard so much about it. But instead of moaning about the problems I spoke to the management about them.

I was told that the building still had the finishing touches to be made to it and my concerns would be addressed. And they were.

We went to the pool the following week, were met by baby chairs in all the family changing rooms and no one stopped me from taking towels to the pool side. They might sound like small things but to mam with a small child they make all the difference.

I'd also forgotten to bring a baby swimming nappy and the staff couldn't do enough to find one in the new building that I could use.
We now go to the pool once a week, we're loving it and I'm so glad my little boy has such a fantastic pool in which to learn to swim.
Mrs L Darby,
Houghton

It's a disgrace
I AM writing to comment on the letter of June 5 about the Aquatic Centre. I have to say that I disagree entirely. £3.05, not expensive?

I don't know who it's not expensive for but it's definitely not referring to the working class. Yes of course if you're retired and enjoying a flexible routine of going swimming when you feel like it.

But for the working class, they only have the time they're permitted. They are not flexible and they certainly don't have that kind of money to spend on swimming. Especially when half the pool is taken up by swimming classes most the time and when it cost less than £2.00 for an unlimited swim at the Crowtree Leisure pool.

I find it ridiculous that somebody could even suggest that this is cheap when people are not even getting what they are paying for.

The facility is a disgrace.
Furious Swimmer,
Roker

Not cash well-spent
I DISAGREE with the letter written by Pauline Philliskirk (Letters, June 5), about asking fellow citizens of Sunderland to support the council on the subject of the new Sunderland Aquatic and Wellness Centre.

I'm sorry but I do not agree that this was money well-spent. The building cost £20million(over two thirds of which was paid for by taxpayers) and the frankly awful opening ceremony cost additional taxpayers' money.

I find this an obscene waste of money when the planners made an error so simple as miscalculating the height of a diving board and not providing parking spaces.

Let's be realistic, it is not the wisest descision to park your car in the surrounding streets. I find this a shocking decision on the part of the council. I'd love to know why these facilities were not catered for; perhaps a person from the council could tell us why?

Another point is that £3.05 to go for a swim is very expensive indeed, especially when it cost me less than £2 at the perfectly adequate Crowtree Leisure Centre.

Many families can't afford this, particularly those with many children and with food and petrol prices rising, then many families will be unable to afford a swim.

Finally, why can't the council put Crowtree to better use? Such as using Crowtree pool for swimming lessons or school swim sessions?

Anything to free up the main pool at the Aquatic Centre would welcome. I'm sure many agree that closing Crowtree was a mistake and a loss for all swimmers in Sunderland.
Irate,
St Gabriel's Estate,
Sunderland

Picking up litter
WEARSIDE Friends of the Earth, Durham Bird Club, and Tunstall Hills Protection Group, are participating in a Litter Pick at Tunstall Hills supported by the Councils "Just Bin It" campaign.

The day will start at 9.0am Saturday, July 26 and end at noon.

If anyone would like to take part in the event, and so that I can gauge numbers of participants please contact me at: email.
allan.rowell@mac.com or mob. 07786874769.

DBC currently runs a scheme "Litter to Glitter" which is supported and assisted by WFoE. The scheme encourages people to help clean up the countryside by collecting drinks cans (of which there are many!).

People are encouraged to collect all drinks cans steel and aluminium, the steel cans to be recycled in the usual manner, the aluminium cans to be sold as scrap (1p per can, £7. 50p, for a wheelie bin full of flattened cans).

The money donated to the DBC Conservation Fund is used to help create and maintain habitat for wild birds and other wildlife within the area of the DBC (basically the area between the Tyne and Tees).

I leave you with this thought;
If enough people took part in schemes like this, how much more rubbish could be removed from our countryside (and streets especially!) if plastic bottles were given a value through legislation?
Allan Rowell,
Wearside Friends of the Eartth/Durham Bird Club

No bar meals
WHILE in Houghton attending a funeral, I thought I would have myself a bar meal. Four pubs in Newbottle Street, no problem you would have thought. But no one seems to put these on. What's wrong with this town?

Also there's a lack of toilets. Do many people visit Houghton? I doubt it.
Very Annoyed