Councillor is looking for open water coaches to help local kids learn to sea swim
Dear Swimmers
Weymouth Town Councillor Alex Fuhrmann just contacted me via Messenger to ask if the sea swimmers club had coaches who could help kids to learn to sea swim as part of the school curriculum (he is a primary school teacher by day).
Alex has been kept fully briefed with regards the details of the Greenhill swim centre problem since it happened on 1st April 2019.
This is our conversation (below). I have no qualms sharing it as he is a public servant asking a director of a non-profit organisation for a favour (i.e. full disclosure):
"Alex: Do you have any coaches at the sea swimmers club?
Me: Yes. Why?
Alex: Wondering if there is a way the kids at school can access sea swimming as part of the swimming curriculum
Me: There's nowhere for them to change and warm up. There are swim coaches who are experienced sea swimmers. They used to use the swim centre at Greenhill. We planned to hold kids sessions. Your colleagues and council officers screwed that.
Alex: Do you have a contact for someone that runs the sea swimmers club so I can liaise with them?
Me: There is no "club" as such. There is a Facebook group with 1,400 swimmers in it. There are other smaller groups online who we all know. It is an organic online entity. The swimmers' "club" was a financially sustainable community interest company. It still exists but has no income or premises. There are two directors. One is Alexia O'Mara who organises Saturday morning swims from the groyne at Greenhill where swimmers change on the beach. The other director is me. Feel free to contact anyone you like. As explained, the reality is different from perception. It didn't need to be. What happened was terribly wrong [edited out stronger description] and no amount of pretending it wasn't will alter the facts. The best thing you could do to get kids learning to sea swim is persuade your colleagues to actually try to repair the damage and provide appropriate premises on the beach. Jon Orrell has made noises for more than two years about some such. Wake up Alex. Wake up. I like you but like everyone else who has come into contact with the truth about what happened you are not facing up to it. I can email all 1000 plus signatories of the petition to get the council to do something. If you and your colleagues would like to offer us something I'm sure I will be able to get sufficient feedback to inform any decision. All the best."
Swimmers, please forgive me for being slightly irritated at being asked to help a council which has, at every level, preferred to look the other way before then coming to us to ask for our help about an important matter which has always been in their power to fix.
Do please email Councillor Fuhrmann if you would like to offer your services if you are a coach, it is a great idea and could help our kids to be safer and enjoy the mental health benefits of sea swimming. In passing you might also like to ask him why the council have been silent for so long and what the council are prepared to do for the swimmers who would like to now help them with their plans, despite everything.
Here is Councillor Fuhrmann's email address: cllralexfuhrmann@weymouthtowncouncil.gov.uk
I will now post this on the Weymouth Bay Sea Swimmers Facebook group which contains 1,400 members and which saw numbers soar during lockdown.
Meanwhile, if you have a moment and want to write to him but don't quite know what to say you can direct him to this link where he will be able to watch the WBSS CIC AGM at which I disclosed the facts surrounding the unlawful eviction of the swimmers from their Greenhill swim centre.
Yesterday I had a visitor to The Circular Shop in the Park District. We recognised each other as long time sea swimmers who had both used the swim centre at Greenhill. The lady lamented about its loss to the community. She said she and her friend had just started using it when we had it taken from us and that she'd loved being able to change and store her stuff and the sense of community it had brought to sea swimming. I showed her the old sign that Steve Petford had hand carved for the door as it was close by, sitting in a box at back of the shop.
Thanks for your continued support.
All the best
Jason