A YORK gym has closed its outdoor pool at short notice in a bid to save money on energy bills.

The David Lloyd Club in Hull Road, York, closed its pool on Monday, saying it was an 'exceptional decision to temporarily close the pool' as part of a range of energy efficiency initiatives put in place during the ongoing energy crisis.

The Press has had several complaints from David Lloyd members saying it was closed with less than a week notice and with no prior consultation with members.

One member - who didn't want to be named - said they specifically said they were only joining to swim in the outdoor pool and that they were told that the pool would be open from dawn to dusk throughout the year when they joined a few weeks ago. 

They said: "David Lloyd has more than 100 clubs in the country, yet it appears that only 11 clubs have been ‘selected’ to close their outdoor pools on Monday (October 18), just five days before the half term holidays. And no suitable answers were forthcoming from management who claimed it was out of their hands and a ‘central’ decision. So why York? If this is a central decision, why is this being done piecemeal, and what suitable answers do they have for their choice of clubs?

"Why didn’t they ballot their members to see if they would still use the pool if it were unheated. After all, wild swimming has become immensely popular, especially since the pandemic. And we have a further wave of Covid on the way. How about the people who are concerned not to be breathing the humid recycled air of the indoor pool area when covid cases have increased so sharply?"

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Another said: “The outdoors swimmers at David Lloyd York are a diverse lot - young and old, members with autoimmune diseases that react adversely in the indoor pool, serious swimmers who don’t want to train in water that is too warm, teachers who some to de-stress after class, members who have been using the outdoor pool for 12 years and new members who have come to rehabilitate from injury staff and students of the University.  What is unanimous is their agreement as to the mental and physical benefits of open-air swimming, and their anger and frustration that these benefits have been summarily lost without any good reasons being given.”

A spokesperson for David Lloyd Clubs said: "We have taken the exceptional decision to temporarily close a number of our outdoor pools as part of a range of energy efficiency initiatives we have had to put in place during the ongoing energy crisis.

"We already close some of our outdoor pools in winter, which is a decision made at a local level, depending on usage and size of the facility.