I WRITE regarding York's swimming pools and their uncertain future.

The city's leisure services department argued that declining use of the Barbican - and other pools - points to a declining popularity of traditional swimming.

Possibly they're right. But on April 1 the price for a single swim at the Barbican rose by just under 40 per cent. A rise of such proportions cannot be related to any real increase in staffing or maintenance costs and looks calculated to turn declining popularity into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Stephen Ollivier,

Spring Lane,

Heslington, York.

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