Birtle's Sport

11/09/2026

❓ 10–12 WEEKS OF REVIEWING OUR CLUB… BUT WHERE ARE THE ANSWERS?

GLL has now provided us with some information about the reported 10–12 week review and monitoring of Penrith Swimming Club.

But after repeated requests, we still don’t have a comprehensive explanation.

Westmorland & Furness councillors were told GLL had monitored our pool usage for 10–12 weeks, identifying additional operational and lifeguarding costs.

GLL’s latest explanation simply says our Learn to Swim provision was “subsequently verified by the centre Duty Manager team.”

So we’re still asking:

❓ What was monitored for 10–12 weeks?
❓ What was recorded?
❓ What additional costs were identified and how were they calculated?
❓ What evidence showed our programme was actually causing a problem?
❓ Why wasn’t the first step simply to speak to us?

This process ultimately led to us being told on 1 August that PSC:

“will not be authorised to operate any Junior Learn to Swim sessions”

We have taught children to swim in Penrith for generations.

Nobody needed 10–12 weeks of monitoring to discover that.

We want to work constructively with GLL and find a solution.

But our 145-year-old volunteer-run club deserves transparency and answers.

We aren’t asking for GLL’s lessons to stop.

We are asking why both programmes can’t coexist. 💙

2,200+ people are standing with us: https://c.org/8pWHDS6mR6

Keep signing. Keep sharing. Keep asking questions.

PROTECT THE BEGINNING.
PROTECT THE PATHWAY.
PROTECT THE FUTURE.

11/09/2026

ONE MONTH AGO TODAY 💙

One month ago today, everything changed.

On 11 August, Penrith Town broke the story of the proposals affecting Penrith Swimming Club’s Learn to Swim provision.

Until then, our fight was largely happening behind closed doors.

Penrith.Town gave our Club a voice and gave our community the opportunity to understand what was happening.

What happened next has been incredible.

Today, throughout the day, we’re going to look back at what has happened in just one month.

But first, simply:

Thank you, Penrith Town. 💙

Without local journalism telling our story, our voice may never have been heard.

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

11/09/2026

One month on: Penrith Swimming Club thanks Penrith Town for giving its campaign a voice

One month after Penrith.Town broke the story surrounding proposals affecting Penrith Swimming Club’s Learn to Swim provision, the Club has thanked the local news outlet for journalism which helped ensure its concerns were heard and sparked an extraordinary wave of community support.

On 11 August, Penrith.Town brought the developing situation involving GLL/Better, Westmorland and Furness Council and Penrith Swimming Club into the public domain.

The story followed the Club receiving an email from the General Manager of Penrith Leisure Centre on 1 August stating that, following the summer break, Penrith Swimming Club would no longer be authorised to operate its junior Learn to Swim sessions during its pool hire.

For Penrith Swimming Club, the coverage marked a turning point.
What had initially been discussions taking place behind closed doors became a major community issue, with swimmers, parents, former members, local organisations and residents rallying behind the 145-year-old volunteer-run Club.

In the weeks since, the campaign has gathered thousands of petition signatures, attracted widespread public support and reached local and regional media. Penrith.Town has continued to follow the story throughout the campaign, including recording the extraordinary meeting of Penrith Town Council, allowing people unable to attend to hear the discussion surrounding the future of the Club for themselves.
Penrith Town Council subsequently backed the continuation of Penrith Swimming Club’s Learn to Swim provision alongside GLL’s programme, supporting a model which protects family choice and the future of the Club.

The campaign has since travelled from Penrith to Westminster.
Penrith and Solway MP Markus Campbell-Savours visited the Club, met swimmers, coaches and volunteers and subsequently tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons, putting the future of Penrith Swimming Club formally on the parliamentary record.

The motion has also begun attracting support from MPs beyond Cumbria, including Jim Shannon MP from Northern Ireland, as the Club calls for further cross-party backing.

A Penrith Swimming Club spokesperson said:

“One month ago, Penrith.Town told our story. We genuinely don't know where this campaign would be today without them.

“When our Club received the communication on 1 August, we were facing an incredibly uncertain future. Penrith.Town gave our members, volunteers and community a platform and ensured people understood what was happening.

“The response since then has been immense. Thousands of people have signed our petition, Penrith Town Council has publicly supported us, our MP has visited the Club and our campaign has now reached the House of Commons through an Early Day Motion.

“None of that happens unless people first hear your story.

“Good local journalism matters. Penrith.Town didn't just report one article and move on. They have continued to follow developments, attended and recorded the Town Council meeting and helped keep our community informed.

“Whatever the eventual outcome of this campaign, we want to put on record our sincere thanks to Penrith.Town. Without them, we genuinely believe our voice may never have been heard.”

The campaign followed information concerning the Club entering the public domain which Westmorland and Furness Council later acknowledged included elements based solely on discussions with GLL that should not have been presented in the way they were without further verification.

The Council has since publicly confirmed that no final decision has been made and that coexistence between the two Learn to Swim programmes is one of the options being considered.

Penrith Swimming Club remains clear that it is not calling for GLL’s swimming lessons to stop. Its campaign is about allowing the two programmes to coexist, retaining choice for local families and protecting a pathway which has taken generations of children from their first strokes into competitive swimming, coaching, volunteering and lifelong participation.

One month after the story first broke, the Club says its message remains the same:
Protect the beginning. Protect the pathway. Protect the future.

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

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

10/09/2026

CUMBRIA MPs: WILL YOU STAND WITH US? 🏛️💙

Our campaign has reached Parliament. Now we need MPs to stand with us.

Our MP Markus Campbell-Savours has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for action to protect Penrith Swimming Club and our 145-year swimming pathway.

Now we're calling on MPs across the country, and especially our fellow Cumbrian MPs, to add their names.
📢
📢
📢 Julie Minns MP
📢 Michelle Scrogham MP
📢 Lizzi Collinge MP

Will you stand alongside Markus and support one of Cumbria's oldest sporting institutions?

This goes beyond Penrith. Community swimming clubs across the country provide pathways from a child's first strokes to competition, coaching, volunteering and lifelong participation.

We're asking everyone reading this to do TWO things:

1️⃣ Send the Early Day Motion to your MP and ask them to sign it.

2️⃣ Sign and share our petition.

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

✍️ SIGN 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.

10/09/2026

One of the greatest things about a community sports club is seeing the circle complete.

A nervous youngster arrives for their first sessions.

They learn.

They progress.

They compete.

They grow up.

And years later, some come back to stand on the other side of the pool.

As teachers. Coaches. Officials. Committee members and volunteers.

They give the next generation the opportunities somebody once gave them.

That's how clubs like ours survive for generations.

Our pathway doesn't simply produce swimmers.

It produces the people who become the future of Penrith Swimming Club.

That's why decisions affecting the youngest end of the club can eventually be felt everywhere.

Fewer swimmers entering today can mean fewer competitive swimmers tomorrow and fewer experienced adults coming back to support the club in the future.

We need to protect that cycle.

Today's swimmer. Tomorrow's volunteer.

Protect the pathway and help us continue creating opportunities for generations to come.

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

10/09/2026

09/09/2026

🏛️💙 OUR SUPPORT IN PARLIAMENT IS GROWING!

Our campaign is no longer standing with just one MP.

Alongside our own MP , we’re delighted that Jim Shannon MP from Northern Ireland has added his support to the Early Day Motion backing Penrith Swimming Club.

From Penrith to Strangford, MPs are beginning to stand with our 145-year-old Club. Now we want more to join them!

📢 We’re calling on MPs from every party and every part of the UK to add their name.

🏛️ Read the motion:
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/66517

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

Two MPs and counting… who will be next? 💙

09/09/2026

Penrith Swimming Club Situation Raised in Parliamentary Motion

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

Look at swimmers standing on the blocks at a competition and you're seeing the end result of years of development.

They weren't born knowing how to dive.

They didn't always know how to tumble turn.

They weren't always confident racing.

And they certainly didn't begin by swimming kilometre after kilometre in training.
They learned.

Then they developed.

Then somebody gave them their first opportunity to compete.

That is what a pathway does.

Penrith's competitive swimmers don't simply appear in our higher squads. They have to come from somewhere.

Our introductory provision creates the opportunity for children to become part of the club and begin that journey.

Not every child will become an elite swimmer.

They don't need to.

But every child deserves the opportunity to discover how far swimming could take them.

Today's learner could be tomorrow's Penrith competitor.

Protect that opportunity.

Protect the pathway. Sign our petition. https://c.org/Sq6bFDGKtx