A REGULAR swimmer has raised concerns over Wiltshire Council’s take over of leisure centres.

Roger Vincent-Silk, 81, who uses the pool at the Malmesbury Activity Zone daily, has expressed his concern over the untold changes to the facilities as the council takes over management of leisure centres from October 1.

Mr Vincent-Silk said that on the council’s website, it states that no services will be disrupted by the change in management, however, he has said that the Swimtag system has been removed in Malmesbury.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald: Roger Vincent-Silk celebrating 1,000 lengths of the pool Photo: Diane Vose. June 2017.Roger Vincent-Silk celebrating 1,000 lengths of the pool Photo: Diane Vose. June 2017.

This, he told the Gazette, started on the afternoon of Monday, September 13.

The Swimtag system allows swimmers to track how many lengths they’ve done, and their improvement over time on a leaderboard against swimmers across the country.

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“What was an intrinsic part of wellbeing, which enabled individuals to monitor their performance and compare themselves with other people to incentivise yourself with having a leaderboard – all the things you need to spur you on,” he said.

“Even if you don’t want to compete you can monitor your day-by-day improvement.

“I’ve been using it for about four years and go almost daily. It’s a loss and they said they weren’t going to take anything away.

“I’m 81, and I need something to keep me boosted, and I think it’s a shame that.”

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Mr Vincent-silk questioned what other plans the council had for leisure centres including the costs of memberships.

In regards to Swimtag, the council has decided to axe the service stating that the decision was made after looking at its return on investment.

A spokesman for the council said: “In this case, whilst some customers value this tool, there was not sufficient robust evidence to suggest that the cost of providing this service was effective in increasing memberships and therefore return on investment.

“Once we have all 20 sites together, we will be undertaking a wider review of all digital provision and can include this type of technology within that review.”

Cabinet member for leisure, Ian Blair-Pilling said: “Places Leisure and Wiltshire Council do have different pricing structures.

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“The council’s principles are to provide a broad range of memberships and price points, including a comprehensive concessionary policy and pricing that applies across both memberships and ‘pay as you go’ activities.

“It is important for both continuity and equity across the county that we work towards full alignment of prices.

“In doing this, it is inevitable that some prices will need to change.

“There will be some prices that will increase, but there are also prices that will decrease. Price changes will affect both Places Leisure and Wiltshire Council customers.

“Where prices increase, we will be working to minimise the impact and phase increases over a period of time. We are aiming to keep our offer as consistent as possible, and although some of the leisure members who will transfer over will notice some differences, they can rest assured that we will continue to provide them with high-quality services and facilities.

“Once we have completed the membership mapping exercise, all direct debit and annual members will be communicated with to inform them of any price increases or decreases that will be applied to their membership. We envision that this will be in early October.”