A subsidised parking scheme is being introduced for members of Waterside Pool in Ryde.
The daily cost of parking, when added to the cost of swimming, has always been an issue at Ryde. However, the Waterside Community Trust has now decided it can afford to subsidise its members with a cheap parking offer.
Waterside Community Trust is now into its ninth year of operating The Waterside Pool, first as a simple not for profit company and latterly as a registered charity.
Pool users who take up membership will be able to park for up to 3 hours at the subsidised rate of just £2 per month at any time they are using the pool. This means that Waterside will be giving its members the same parking opportunities as those enjoyed by members of 1Leisure’s The Heights and Medina pools.
This concession will greatly assist residents living too far to walk or cycle to the pool. Trustees envisage that by offering a subsidised parking permit Waterside Pool will be able to grow its membership and will particularly appeal to residents of outlying villages such as Bembridge, Seaview and St Helens.
The scheme will be introduced as soon as the parking permits and accounting procedures are in place – within the next 6 weeks.
Waterside Pool is open from 06:30 until late evening every day.
In other news, the pool has been recognised as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ by national body Swim England. The sports body has also approached Waterside Pool to create a training video in Waterside’s unique centre as a result of the excellent lifeguard training programmes in place driven by General Manager, Todd Miller.
Todd also had further success in gaining funding to purchase a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) to support Beach Lifeguards and is hoping once again after 2 very successful years to organise ‘Swim Safe’ on Sandown Beach in conjunction with the RNLI.
