Sorry for the delay but I thought I'd post a summary of the issues discussed at the Stakeholder meeting with Lewisham and Fusion at the pools last week.

There have been 7560 swims at the pools since they opened
2514 of them have been free swims (library card holders under 16 or over 60)
2570 gym visits
307 gym inductions
9 schools are signed up and have done 15 swim sessions

A new swimming lesson coordinator has started and is working her way through the very high demand for places. Do get back in touch if you were in contact with them in the summer and haven't heard back.

They have been working to address a number of areas of concern, raised here and through feedback
- Swim lane speed signs now in use
- Investigating anti wave lane ropes
- TVs in gym being looked at (apparently a couple don't work)
- Shower pressure/spray has been looked at and is being monitored
- They are looking at whether they can install a costume dryer
- Clarified who can swim and when i.e. lane swimming isn't adult only is for competent swimmers of any age
- They are looking for additional instructors for more yoga and pilates classes
- Dealing with queue management better with more staff and the booking kiosk

Coming up in the next few months they will be:
- Reviewing the programme
- Looking at opening earlier some mornings (6 instead of 7)
- Establishing a customer forum
- Promoting the 'be active' programme (whatever that is?)
- Promoting the free swimming initiative to key age groups
- Looking to improve sessions and ticketing system

The group fed back a number of issues and concerns with how things were going but were generally very supportive of how well things had gone given that they had only been open for 4 weeks at that point.

We talked about the adult child ratio as raised by Roz and they said that they would be looking at this and whether they could have some sessions specifically for parents with more children. These would need an additional lifeguard and would be well advertised if they can do them. The adult child ratios are set company wide apparently but it is an issue that has come up elsewhere.

There was a question over whether they could have some form of creche but it was acknowledged that there wasn't really the space for it.

They are aware of the need to communicate what is going on more clearly. More signage, better signalling, clearer information.

We raised the need for a clean shoe policy in the changing rooms and they are going to review how they deal with this.

They will be extending the lessons programme as children (and adults) move up through the groups. Most of the demand at the moment is at the younger end (presumably because older children are often established in lessons elsewhere?) but this will change over time and they will continue to monitor demand.

They are still filling swim school places as more teachers and sessions become available. The demand is still very strong and they are working their way through the lists.

They have been trialling different swim session times at the weekend at the moment and will public regular session times once they are clear which session timings are working best.

In summary, things are going very well with some teething problems. The pools are VERY well used already by the local community and Fusion are doing what they can to try and meet demand.

However, they were very open to any feedback and would appreciate it if people passed on concerns or issues so that they can deal with them.