A young York swimmer has made a poetic plea for her local pool.

Gemma Kelly, ten, who has written a poem on her opposition to the closure of the Barbican swimming pool Picture: Frank Dwyer

Ten-year-old Gemma Kelly, who lives off Nunnery Lane and goes to Fishergate Primary School, was so upset about the thought of the Barbican Pool closing that she wrote in verse to the Evening Press.

The poem's title is Save Our Swim, the same as the slogan for our campaign to safeguard the futures of the Barbican and Yearsley Pools, which are being considered for closure in a City of York Council review of leisure services.

She begins:

Can't you help all of us kids in York?

We hear the rumours we hear the talk,

You'll make us sad - take away our pool,

Deprive us kids from Fishergate School.

Gemma's mother Janet said she learned to swim with her school at the Barbican, adding: "She's been going since she was in the infants."

She said Gemma had been completing swimming badges, but had just failed one and was worried that if the pool closed she might not be able to finish it.

Or as Gemma puts it in her third verse:

Where will we go if you let us down?

Move away perhaps to another town.

But she is not the only youngster to contact the Evening Press about the pools issue.

Amy Woodcock was one of the Scarcroft Primary School pupils who wrote to us, saying most adults and children enjoyed swimming at pools in their neighbourhood. "It gives them a chance to stay healthy, meet friends and have fun without spending too much," she said.

Hannah Plowman said she has swum at the Barbican since she was three and knew many other people who enjoyed it.

Leah Pendleton said the Barbican was the nearest pool to her school and her home.

And students from the York Steiner School at Fulford Cross have added their voices, with Tamara Kennard asking about the people who would lose their jobs and saying: "Think of all the handicapped people who go for a swim, how will they be able to do that if you close the Barbican down?"

David Rose said: "If you close the pool it will mean that hundreds of people will no longer be able to walk to this swimming pool, and instead would have to take transport to another one much further away."

see NEWS 'Swimmers face massive rise in pool admission charges'

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