Pool resources

COMING from the litter-riddled, 'elf 'n' safety' raddled realms of the UK, it can seem to incomers that Alderney kids have a charmed childhood.

In summer, school swimming is in a clean blue sea, while Cub Scouts can scale the air traffic control tower and have a sleepover at the local museum – both outings made in the last few months. They aren't swaddled in unnecessary safety restrictions, it seems, and the island is more or less their playground.

But lately, I've noticed what they don't have. Not just the dubious delights of Big Macs, Imax arenas and N-Dubz concerts, but places of real use that mainlanders take for granted, such as indoor swimming pools and gyms.

St Anne's School headmaster Michael Gaunt has noticed it, too.

He was an avid gym-goer and swimming enthusiast before he arrived in Alderney three years ago, but in winter here at least that's on hold.

'I don't think people living here necessarily realise what they haven't got,' he said. 'People use a gym as a routine part of life and when people move here, they miss it. I think what the people of Alderney lack at the moment is this sort of facility.'

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There's a campaign afoot to fund-raise for the building of a sports and community centre for schoolchildren and adults to use, led by the Alderney Community and Sports Centre Trust – but it's attracted a blizzard of different views. It will cost £2.5m. to build and equip it and that's before considering running costs. How can a business case be made for heating a pool and paying attendants when on some days there might be only a trickle of visitors through the door?

But the same could be said, it's argued, for the school or the hospital – both cash-thirsty institutions that are nonetheless maintained to uphold a standard quality of life for Bailiwick residents.

Mr Gaunt said a sports and community centre should be seen in a similar light.

'It shouldn't be perceived as some sort of business enterprise,' he said.

'The breakwater loses money every year, for example, yet it is maintained. In any sane world, several things wouldn't be here because they serve so few people, but they do exist as devolved services and I'm very glad they do.

'If you are going to offer services on the basis of health and physical fitness and what people now expect in life, then you can't do it half-heartedly.'

At St Anne's, pupils have a learner pool – hip-depth – and they swim in the sea in the summer. At the moment, the school hall has a stage up for the nativity play, so it can't be used for PE. At a time when so much government effort is being made trying to instil healthy habits in children, it's frustrating not to be able to offer them more.

'We would use it extensively,' said Mr Gaunt. 'I see the school using it every day. Every primary and senior class has at least one PE lesson every week, so that's potentially more than one class using the facility every day.

'Looking purely at the bottom line is wrong. Whether you win, lose or draw financially, this is something the island needs.'

There's no doubt that islanders' health would benefit; but in these straitened times, just how much is that worth?