Sign up for our What's On newsletter Join us here Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Members of the public have been left outraged at the closure of women-only swims at a town leisure centre.

One councillor saw the notice in her local swimming pool after she had enjoyed a swim, and was left furious at what she was reading.

County councillor (C) Loraine Patrick said: “I could not believe what I was reading. I thought what? Really? You’re kidding. I was absolutely volcanic.

“I was dripping wet when I found out and walked right to the reception to take a photo of the notice. When I was there I asked the men around me what they thought and they said that they thought it was utterly ridiculous.”

She highlighted the issue on the Dursley Matters Facebook page.

She posted: ‘You Sir, the complainant have now denied a large proportion of our community the chance to swim. Many of them will no longer feel able to attend.’

Loraine said: “Some women it takes a lot for them to be able to go swimming in the first place with being body conscious. However there are the more serious issues with women that have suffered a serious trauma in their lives as well and they need that swimming session.

“The complaint should have been opened up to members of the public to have their say. This is political correctness gone mad. It is ridiculous. All people need is good manners and consideration in life.

“I need to look into the Equality and Sex Discrimination Acts as I do not believe that they were made for this reason and are that pedantic, that is not why they were put into place. The equality act was to give everybody an equal chance.

"It is a real shame as the Pulse has always been such a fantastic place and the staff are just brilliant."

A petition has now also been launched to bring back women-only swimming sessions.

A spokesman for Stroud District Council said: “We have been running these ladies only swimming sessions historically for several years, however we were recently contacted to justify why we ran them, as single sex classes are likely to be in breach of the Equalities Act 2010.

“Consequently we have had to change the session, which runs for an hour each week, to one for all adults – which also happens to be something many of our customers have asked for. We regularly review our programme and consider our customers’ opinions, and whilst this may not be ideal for everyone, we hope they’ll understand that we have to abide by the law.

“We should add that we are in discussions with Sport England to see if their exemption guidelines would allow us to reinstate the sessions, however it looks very unlikely that we will qualify for this as exceptions only apply when groups are underrepresented, and at The Pulse, the majority of our swimmers, who come throughout the week, are female.”