A SINGLE mum’s kids were in floods of tears after being turned away from a swimming pool because she was the only adult.
Lisa Wood and her four children were refused entry to Smethwick Swimming Centre, West Mids, due to its “unfair” ‘two children per adult’ policy.
The 33-year-old claimed she had no other family or friends who could go with them to the free summer holiday session, but saw no problem going alone.
She said Keelie, nine, Alicea, three, could already swim, while Matthew, two, and one-year-old Chanelle deserved a treat and were “so excited” to get in the water.
The family had spent “all morning” getting ready, walked one and a half miles and arrived 25 minutes early only to be dismissed at the door.
Lisa told BlackCountryLive: “We got there at 12.50pm for the 1.15pm session, I thought I’d get there early as children can swim for free over the holidays.
“I got in there and asked if I could sign them up for the free swimming.
“First they said ‘no’, I have to do it online at home, and then they said you have to have a different email address for each child.
“She said you can’t come in with four children alone, but my family members who would come are disabled.
“That’s not fair on my children. Keelie and Alicea can swim already, I don’t see the problem.”
Lisa continued: “I can’t afford to take them on holiday as everything has gone so expensive, so I thought, great, I’d take them swimming over the holidays.
“Every day I’ve done something with them, taken them to the farm, to parks, they were so excited to go swimming.
“My two-year-old and three-year-old, they were in tears. They thought we were going swimming. I promised them we were.”
Staff told the mum-of-four to “go and get someone else” but she insisted “there is no one”.
“They said it’s two kids per person and I said that’s not fair on my kids,” the angry mum added.
“I’m annoyed and really upset. We were going to have a brilliant day then go and get a cone of chips.
“There’s a lot of single parents out there who have three or four kids.”
‘ANNOYED AND UPSET’
A spokesman for Sandwell Leisure Trust said: “Swimming pools have an under-eights swimming policy which is common practice in the industry and is in place for safety of all participants.
“Parents can register any children for free swimming up and under 16 years of age. This can be done online and centres also can help customers register at the centre.
“Each membership/participant does require a separate email to join however our centre teams do try and help anyone struggling to join online or register for free swimming.
“We will investigate what happened with the team at the centre and pass this feedback/complaint onto the team also.”
Source: The Sun
