Budget cuts has forced a shake up of pool use at Carnegie Leisure Centre.
Fife Sport and Leisure Trust, which runs centres on behalf of Fife Council, had already announced it was having to close the Dunfermline sports centre at 5pm at weekends instead of its current 8pm because of a management fee cut by the local authority.
The council’s funding package means the trust is not able to maintain current levels of existing services at Carnegie Leisure Centre, as well as some of its other sports and leisure facilities across Fife.
Because of the earlier closing hours, it is having to launch a new swimming timetable to provide time for public and club users.
The trust said it will also expand the Learn to Swim offering.
The timetable will affect the main and training pools and the trust is working closely with Scottish Swimming and local clubs.
Introduced at the weekend, the timetable sees 60% of pool time given over to public swimming during peak times, from 4pm until the centre closes.
There will be dedicated weekday evening time slots for club and performance development swimmers between 6pm and 8pm, providing a “balanced” approach, according to the trust.
There will be no change to the children’s swimming pool timetable.
The trust’s chief operating officer Wendy Watson said: “Due to the change in operating hours at the centre, we have had to review our overall swim offering and have worked very hard to deliver a timetable which will benefit a wide range of users while minimising disruption to customers.
“We believe the revised timetable gives a good balance to our customers with better access to the main pool, with less lane restrictions during public times, and importantly accommodates all club swimmers and aquatic disciplines, giving them the opportunity to grow their current memberships and strengthen their elite swimmers.
“These changes will also deliver more potential for our Learn to Swim programme which has recently recorded its highest enrolment levels with over 6,400 participants enrolled across Fife since its launch four years ago.”
Ally Whike, performance director for Scottish Swimming, said: “There are a number of aquatic clubs who use the pool and this looks a good approach which will provide adequate pool time for all pool users.”
Details of the new pool timetable can be can be found at www.fifeleisure.org.uk
