The island has been without a public pool since 2014, when an outdoor learner pool was demolished to make way for a new indoor facility.
Work to build the new pool at St Anne’s School started that year but has been mothballed since 2018, due to problems with foundations, leadership and finances.
Paul Clark has been working to get the St Anne’s pool open but has now settled for trying to at least get an outdoor pool open this summer.
‘I’ve got three grandchildren and another on the way and I want them to be able to learn to swim properly,’ he said.
‘Kids here are currently taught in wetsuits in the sea.
‘They are so buoyant it’s a false and dangerous way to go about things.’
The pool Mr Clark hopes to open was actually bought to go in the empty building at St Anne’s.
‘In 2023 I was working with a developer who had a engineer on island and he had a look at the site,’ he said.
‘We have done the maths on the site and found a low-cost solution – a frame and bladder pool that fits in the site.
‘We raised £25,000 to bring it to Alderney but it’s been sitting in a crate since it arrived in June 2024 because the bureaucrats have slowed everything down.
‘They have put barriers in the way rather than solutions.’
Mr Clark, himself a swimming enthusiast who has swum in national competitions in the UK, as well as swimming from Alderney to France and from Guernsey to Alderney, said the pool was 25 metres long and just over five and a half metres wide, the same length as the main pool at Beau Sejour, but only three lanes wide.
After appealing on Facebook for somewhere flat to place the pool he said he had been really pleased with the response.
‘The campsite came forward which would be perfect as they already have a shower and toilets,’ he said.
‘This was the leaseholder and we now have to go to the States who own the site to get their approval. Hopefully we will get this very soon.’
If the States, as property owners, gives the go ahead, the final hurdle will be planning.
‘Which I don’t feel it needs as it’s portable – but if there is will I feel we can get this done, despite the bureaucracy. I really think it will finally happen, everyone has tried for so long.
‘We have had 200 likes and no negative comments on our Facebook appeal.
‘That’s 10% of the population actively saying yes, let’s get this done.
‘Over 30 volunteers have signed up to teach lessons, be lifeguards, do maintenance and fundraise.’
Ultimately Mr Clark wants the pool to be outdoor for just this summer and for it then to be housed indoors at St Anne’s, so islanders can have year-round swimming facilities.
‘In 2004 our swimming club had 200 members, and I think we will have 300 regularly using this pool,’ he said.
‘Once it is up and running, I don’t think the politicians will be able to say no to it then being moving indoors.’