Water baby Ethan Matthews, aged three, is feeling fed up at the thought of losing his swimming fun.

Ethan and other children from a York nursery could also miss out on gaining vital swimming skills if two of the city's pools were to close.

Staff from the Cottage Nursery in Priory Street take up to five youngsters aged between one-and-half and four to the Barbican Training Pool each week.

Nursery assistant Maria Willis said the main point was to teach the children to swim, but added: "They love it."

She said their parents noticed their attitude to swimming changed after they had taken part, as children who at first would scream when they touched the water would be fine after a few sessions.

"There is such an improvement in the children, you notice it. They are confident in their swimming, it's a real improvement.

"It's nice to know that parents can take their children swimming, and they can stay afloat at least," she added. The Barbican was particularly convenient because the children could walk there in only two minutes.

But Maria added that if the pools had to close their swimming sessions would be under threat, with the only alternative being to try a local school that had a pool.

"It would be a very big disappointment for the children," she said. "We would miss it a lot."

She said the nursery liked the children to mix socially, as they did when they swam, but her main worry was about ensuring they learned to swim because of the dangers of drowning.

From the postbag...

WHILST I agree and commiserate with Clive, Keith, Kevin and Jill, (Swimming pools are vital for York's health, Letters, January 10), may I reiterate the words spoken to me by Liberal councillor Steve Galloway some 15 to 20 years ago. Well, that's politics for you!

I vigorously campaigned against the closure of Rowntree Park baths when £15,000 was desperately needed to repair it. I raised nearly 40,000 signatures, working door-to-door, area by area, night by night to preserve what was, by city standards, an institution. And why, may you ask? How many Saturdays did I go down there...all day for 6d (old money) with a picnic lunch?

Tony Lister, local councillor for South Bank, presented the petition to a Guildhall meeting. It was duly noted, shelved and ignored in less than three seconds. Noting my shock and horror and disbelief at such horrendously quick procedures, Steve Galloway led me away to the bar and bought me a pint with his now famous words ringing in my ears, Well, that's politics for you. I never did drink that pint. It would have stuck in my throat!!

We are, after all, just mortal people who pay our taxes and go along with the swim of things. No matter how passionately we feel about something - no matter how profoundly individuals campaign for the good of the common man, some conclusions are not in our hands and are pre-destined by a group of minors nicknamed bureaucracy.

Democracy decrees that we elect a body of people to determine our well-being. Once elected, there is a fine barrier between democratic principles and rough-shod, ill-begotten decisions that serve no-one but ill-advised and couldn't-care-less local councillors.

Mr T Jones,

Sutherland Street,

South Bank,

York.

I AM writing concerning the closure of Yearsley baths. I have been going to the baths for 30 years and swim there at least once a week. The pool is the best we have in York for swimming, the only one with any distance so you can have a real swim and feel the benefit from it.

I think it is wrong that the council are proposing to shut it. Has anyone thought of the jobs people are losing and where all the clubs that use it will go? Some of them use it because of its size as well as its location.

My son has learnt to swim there with me and through lessons, the pool is within walking distance, which makes it an advantage to us. Just think of all the others who would lose this chance, people do not like to travel to the other side of York when we have perfectly good facilities on our doorstep.

The closure would be tragic to all its staff and customers who have used it over the years and I hope the decision is not made.

Pauline Duck,

Huntington Road,

York.

I HAVE recently learned that City of York Council is considering closing the Yearsley and Barbican swimming pools. I wish to express my unhappiness about this.I would be disappointed to see a reduction of easily-available swimming facilities in York, as I believe they benefit the city residents in many ways.

David Leishman,

Huntington Road,

York.

MAY I add to the protests against the closing of Yearsley and the Barbican swimming pools.

In York there are plenty of private health and leisure clubs with saunas and Jacuzzis, but not many swimming pools for swimming!

It would be tragic if these beneficial facilities were to disappear.

Mrs F B Dewar,

Huntington Road,

York.

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