Teacher Lisa headed to Bath Leisure Centre and she shared her experience with us.
I wanted to write a post about my first swim since the pools have reopened from Covid-19.
I decided to go to Bath Leisure Centre (N Parade Rd, Bathwick, Bath BA2 4ET).
Booking
Bath Leisure Centre are not taking calls at this time. For enquiries, they direct you to their website. To book online you need to create an account for each user.
The swimming slots are in 10-minute windows, but you get an hour for your swim.
I chose the fitness swim at 14:50 -15:00pm which cost £6.00 for an adult. I took my 13 year old daughter Bliss, and her swim cost £4.00 for a child. Bliss is a competant swimmer.
At this time, as we understand it, swimming for beginners and non-swimmers is restricted.
Adult and child swimming
Better Bath Leisure statement reads:
During the interim phase of reopening we will be focusing on our Swim For Fitness sessions. Time slots in these sessions will need to be booked individually and are available for juniors but they must be competent swimmers, able to swim consistently in a lane swimming environment.
Some leisure centres will offer Adult and Child Swim sessions in selected pools over the weekend where every adult booking a slot will be able to bring up to two children at no extra cost. Please check for available sessions via the Better UK app.
Parking
Bath Leisure centre has a pay and display carpark. Parking is easy and it cost £3.60 for 2 hours.
Entrance
There are plenty of signs to direct you. The staff behind the screened desk were helpful. A member of staff guides you through the turnstile where you are able to sanitize your hands.
Buy your locker token before you enter the changing room
As you go through the turnstile, there is a card payment machine to buy tokens for the lockers. Tokens for the locker are 30p and are non-refundable.
Changing areas
The changing areas are clearly signposted with one-way directions. There are cleaning stations available with blue roll and disinfectant to clean your cubicle.
Swim England advise you go to the pool ‘beach ready’ with your costume underneath your clothes, so myself and my daughter just popped our bag into a locker and headed to the poolside following the arrows marked.
Poolside
There is one-way system round the main pool. At the time we went, the leisure pool was closed.
The pool is 25m long and split into 3 double lanes. The lanes permit a max of 10 swimmers per lane and are clearly signed slow / medium / fast and direction of swim.
Myself and my daughter were very lucky as all 3 lanes only had 2 swimmers in each so it was a lovely swim.
After the swim
Once our time was up, we headed back to the changing area which was not busy at all. There are a couple of showers available and toilets are also open. I sanitised our cubicles before changing and we headed out of the leisure following the exit signs which led us to the rear of the building to the car park.
All in all…
I have to say our visit was made easy! Both myself and my daughter felt comfortable and pleased to be back in the pool. So much so, I have booked another session.
If you are in two minds whether to go or not… I would say go for it!
