We have considered the guidance from Swim England and the social distancing and enhanced cleaning measures that will need to be put in place for all our sites that we use for Swim School. Unfortunately, our sites within Minehead do not comply with the current Return to Swimming guidance from Swim England.

The pool at St Michael's School is too small to ensure the necessary social distancing and the reduced capacity which we must operate with. Based on the recommended minimum – 6 m2 per person, this makes it also unviable to run at the current time. We also use Butlins for our swim school, but currently this is not available and we do have concerns around the enhanced cleaning requirements that would need to be put in place to even operate from this facility.

We are extremely disappointed and frustrated that at the current time we will not be able to operate within West Somerset. However, the safety of our swimmers, parents and staff is paramount to us. We are absolutely committed to trying to get back to the position before Coronavirus at Minehead, if this is at all possible. Although, obviously until the measures around social distancing are relaxed and the guidance changes then we will not be able to do this.