Madam,

Reading in the Cambrian News that free swimming for over-60s is to be reduced without consultation or publication of an impact assessment is yet another insult to older ratepayers of Gwynedd.

This decision seems to have been made after the leisure centres have been put in arm’slength management to avoid scrutiny by the public and mask a cut the council has chosen to make without attempting to measure its impact.

Gwynedd Council established a company, Byw’n Iach, to manage the county’s 12 leisure centres, with Amanda Davies as Byw’n Iach managing director. The company’s board members include elected councillors, Jason Parry, Beth Lawton and Dewi Owen.

The Welsh Government has made cuts of 20 per cent to the budget provided for over-60s swimming in the past year, for all Welsh local authority areas. Welsh Government guidance is that, as a minimum, free swimming should be available to the over-60s at all times other than during school holidays. But it is in predominantly Welsh-speaking areas such as Carmarthenshire and Gwynedd that elected councillors have decided to make this cut to their over 60s free swimming.

Ceredigion has so far managed its budget to continue to provide free access, as does Powys, etc.

Those over 60 in south Gwynedd are not pleased that bus timetables do not match the new reduced hour of free access to the nearest pools, which are on average 26 miles away.

This is clearly a political decision made at the expense of the health and well-being of south Gwynedd older citizens.

Yours etc, Name and address supplied.

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