Penrith Swimming Club

09/09/2026

🏊 THIS POOL MEANS SOMETHING TO PENRITH SWIMMING CLUB

During our MP's visit, we spoke about something that can easily get lost in the current debate.

The Frenchfield Teaching Pool.

Penrith Swimming Club's connection to Frenchfield goes back generations, to the Club's original home on the River Eamont.

When the teaching pool at Penrith Leisure Centre was developed, our Club and its community contributed tens of thousands of pounds towards its creation.

It carries the Frenchfield name, connecting today's young swimmers with that extraordinary history.

We don't claim that historic investment means the Club owns the pool.

We don't claim that arrangements should never change.

But surely it means something.

It demonstrates the relationship that has existed between this Club, this facility and this community.

And now the very pool our community helped create to develop young swimmers sits at the centre of a debate about whether our Club should continue teaching young swimmers within it.

We believe there is a much better answer.

Formalise the arrangement.

Let GLL teach.

Let Penrith Swimming Club teach.

Give families a choice.

More than 2,200 people have already backed that message.

Help us make it even louder.

SIGN THE PETITION: https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx

Built for a community.

Built for young swimmers.

Let's keep it that way.

09/09/2026

We want to clear up something important about our campaign.

Penrith Swimming Club has never asked for GLL's Learn to Swim programme to stop.

We recognise that families choose different routes for different reasons.

Our campaign is about ensuring Penrith Swimming Club's provision can continue too.

We believe there is room in Penrith for both.

GLL can continue delivering its programme.

Penrith Swimming Club can continue providing an entry into our club pathway.

And families can choose the provision that works for them.

We believe the answer is partnership, not removal.

A formal agreement. Clear arrangements. Good communication. A pathway that works for everyone.

Ending one provision to create a single offer removes choice and risks damaging the pathway that feeds our competitive swimming club.

We don't want less swimming in Penrith.

We want more people swimming.

There is room for both.

Protect choice. Protect the pathway.

Please sign our petition. https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx

09/09/2026

📢 OUR CAMPAIGN HAS REACHED PARLIAMENT

Our MP, Markus Campbell-Savours, has tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons supporting Penrith Swimming Club and our fight to protect our Learn to Swim provision.

From an ultimatum on 1 August to our 145-year-old Club now being discussed in Parliament. 💙

🏛️ Read the full Early Day Motion:
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/66517

✍️ Sign and share our petition:
https://www.change.org/p/save-our-swimming-club-save-penrith-swimming-club-s-learn-to-swim-provision

Protect the beginning. Protect the pathway. Protect the future.

Penrith Swimming Club Situation Raised in Parliamentary Motion

09/09/2026

📢 YOU’LL BE WAKING UP TO SOME BIG NEWS FOR PENRITH SWIMMING CLUB…

Our MP, Markus Campbell-Savours for Penrith & Solway , has submitted an Early Day Motion to Parliament regarding the proposals affecting Penrith Swimming Club’s Learn to Swim provision.

🏛️ What is an Early Day Motion?
It is a formal motion submitted in the House of Commons which puts an issue on the parliamentary record and allows MPs from across the country and across political parties to add their names in support.

For our 145-year-old swimming club, this means our campaign is no longer just being heard locally. It is being taken to Parliament.

💙 A huge thank you to Markus for listening to our swimmers, volunteers and community and taking our fight to Westminster.

📖 Read the Early Day Motion here: https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/66517

✍️ Sign our petition and stand with us: https://c.org/gjj5hhVVDh

Protect the beginning. Protect the pathway. Protect the future.

08/09/2026

Here's a great write-up from the Penrith Swimming Club archives, going back to January 2020, when our swimmers travelled to compete at Sunderland's New Year Long Course Meet.

Competing in a 50m pool is another important experience for developing swimmers.

It gives them the opportunity to challenge themselves in a different environment, race swimmers from other clubs and put all those hours of training into practice.

Trips like Sunderland are part of what being a competitive swimming club is all about.

Travelling together. Supporting teammates. Chasing PBs. Testing yourself against new competition. Representing Penrith beyond Cumbria. And, importantly, having fun and creating memories along the way.

But swimmers don't simply arrive at competitions like this.

There is a pathway that gets them there.

They learn. They develop. They train. They compete. They progress.

That's why we're sharing these memories as part of .

The youngsters beginning their swimming journey with Penrith today could be the swimmers travelling across the country to represent our club tomorrow.

We want them to have that opportunity.

Protect the beginning. Protect the pathway. Protect the future.

Please continue to sign and share our petition and stand with Penrith Swimming Club. https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx

08/09/2026

If Penrith Swimming Club was only about swimming lengths, we'd have missed some of its greatest moments.

We remember our community coming together for Swim for Sue, collectively swimming the distance of all the Lake District lakes and raising nearly £15,000 for Brain Tumour Research.

We remember lockdown, when we couldn't even get into a swimming pool but still found ways of keeping our swimmers connected.

We remember getting back together for land training as soon as restrictions allowed, making sure our swimmers were ready when we could finally return to the water.

And there are countless other memories.

Christmas events. Competitions. Fundraising. Galas. Friendships. Celebrations.

Supporting one another when things aren't quite so easy.

That's a swimming club.

The pathway doesn't just develop swimmers.

It brings people into a community.

That's another reason we're fighting so hard to protect its beginning.

More than swimming. More than a club.

Please sign and share our petition. https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx

08/09/2026

MP backs Penrith Swimming Club against leisure centre operators proposals to remove the Club’s Learn to Swim provision.

08/09/2026

26 OTHER CLUBS HAVE CONTACTED US!

When the proposed GLL cull of Penrith Swimming Club’s Learn to Swim programme began, we thought we were dealing with a local issue. We now know we are not. This goes beyond Penrith.

At the moment a new club contacts us every day sharing similar experiences or concerns of learn-to-swim pathways being removed or restricted.

We have learnt that this is happening across England, and into Scotland.

GLL feature in many of the stories but it is important to note that they are not the only operator quoted.

We are hearing a much wider pattern: leisure operators are removing other Learn to Swim programmes from publicly owned facilities, leaving their own programmes as the primary or sole pathway for children learning to swim.

We believe this is no time to be restricting swim offerings. Drowning is recorded as one of leading causes of accidental death among children in the UK. The number of children in the uk able to swim 25 metres consistently falls well below government targets.

And for PSC, swimming is more than a life skill. It’s a pathway into competitive sport, to being part of a team, to new friendship groups, finding new confidence; and for some it’s a pathway into volunteering, giving back to the local community and our sport.

That’s why we believe a GLL or operator run programme can run alongside Club-led pathways very effectively.
In Penrith, that has been the case for decades.

We believe there are a lot more stories we haven’t heard yet.
We want to hear them.
We want our local MP Markus Campbell-Savours MP to hear them.
As a small community club it is important that we learn from your experiences.

📣 So we need your help.

If your swimming club has lost its Learn to Swim programme, been told to reduce it, faced restrictions, or is currently facing something similar, please contact Penrith Swimming Club: [email protected]

What we thought was a Penrith issue may be a much bigger issue for grassroots swimming pathways.

Please share this post with clubs across the UK.

08/09/2026

💙 72 YEARS OF PENRITH SWIMMING CLUB IN ONE PHOTOGRAPH

When our MP visited Penrith Swimming Club, we wanted him to meet the people who explain why this Club means so much to our community.

Meet Mr Powley.

He joined Penrith Swimming Club when he was just 14 years old.

Today, at 86, he is still here.

Still a member.

Still coaching.

For 72 years, Penrith Swimming Club has been part of his life.

Think about how many swimmers he has watched take their first strokes.

How many generations have come through the doors.

How many children have become swimmers, competitors, coaches and volunteers themselves.

This is why our Learn to Swim provision isn't simply another block of swimming lessons on a timetable.

It's where relationships with our Club can begin that last a lifetime.

When Markus Campbell-Savours MP visited this week, he got to see that for himself.

Mr Powley represents something that cannot be measured on a spreadsheet.
Community. Service. Belonging.

At 14 he joined our Club.

At 86 he's still giving something back.

And we want today's youngest swimmers to have the opportunity to write their own story.

Please stand with Mr Powley and the generations that will follow him.

SIGN THE PETITION: https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx

72 years a member.
145 years a Club.
One future worth protecting.

07/09/2026

💙 MARKUS MET OUR MEMBERS. NOT “POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS”.

When MP visited Penrith Swimming Club, we wanted him to see something that can easily get lost amongst emails, policies, reviews and financial discussions.

The people.

He stood poolside and met our swimmers.

He met our coaches.

He met our volunteers.

He saw children learning, developing and becoming part of a Club that has been at the heart of swimming in Penrith since 1881.

Because these children are not numbers on a spreadsheet.

They are our members.

That matters particularly because GLL's latest explanation to the Club states that our
Learn to Swim provision:

“could potentially overlap with participants who may otherwise attend the centre's Learn to Swim programme.”

We understand that GLL operates a Learn to Swim programme and needs that programme to be sustainable.

But when we look into the pool, we don't see children who “may otherwise attend” somebody else's programme.

We see Penrith Swimming Club members.

Children whose families have chosen our Club.

Children who are beginning a journey with us.

Children who may progress through Development, C, B and A squads.

Children who may one day compete for Penrith.

Children who may become Masters swimmers, water polo players, coaches or volunteers.

And perhaps, decades from now, some will still be standing poolside giving something back to the next generation.

That's what a swimming club is.

It is why removing the beginning of our pathway cannot simply be viewed as transferring a group of potential participants from one swimming programme to another.

SIGN THE PETITION: https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx

Those introductory swimmers are part of the future of our Club.