Public swimming pools have closed across Wiltshire

The closures are part of a wider trend across the South West, where nine council-owned pools have shut or been sold since 2014/15, according to a GMB union investigation.

The closures represent nearly 10 per cent of all public pools in the region.

Kevin Brandstatter, GMB national officer, said: "The Conservatives' grim legacy of austerity has left brutal scars right across society.

"But local authorities being forced to close so many swimming pools is a particularly terrifying example.

"Learning to swim is a basic life skill, splashing in a pool is a fundamental childhood joy – two things being potentially now denied to thousands of youngsters.

"Taken to its extreme it leaves young people at risk of drowning.

"It’s going to take years to repair the damage the Tories did, but Labour’s fair funding review must start funding local authorities properly again."

The figures were gathered through a Freedom of Information request sent to councils across the UK.

Other areas in the South West that have seen pool closures include North Devon, North Somerset, Exeter, the Isles of Scilly, Bath and Somerset, Swindon and the Forest of Dean.