Dear members
We take our responsibility to keep you up to date very seriously and with the fast-moving situation, we have been tracking the latest developments throughout the day.
Following regular contact with Swim England today, we were informed that their Board met this evening and they have recently issued their latest advice – see the full announcement here… Swim England statement regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
Based on this revised advice, the SMSC committee has now taken the difficult decision to suspend all of our swimming activities with immediate effect and until further notice. We are unsure of the full duration of this suspension, however it is likely to be until at least the end of May, probably longer. We will update you further over the coming weeks.
We realise that this will be a disappointing development for all our keen swimmers, but in these extraordinary times, we feel this is the best decision to protect our swimmers, parents/carers, coaches, volunteers and the rest of the general public.
Whilst there is a lot to consider, the committee and coaches are currently looking at the following two key areas:
Fitness – where possible, swimmers at all levels are encouraged to maintain their own personal fitness and keep active during this time, while following government guidelines about safe distance and safe exercise environments. Where we see opportunities for sharing information about fitness for swimming, we will do so.
Finance – in this instance, it is our intention for fees to be suspended as sessions are formally suspended – they will be reinstated once the sessions resume. We are looking in detail at how this will work and will contact you all again with more practical details in due course.
We realise that you may have a number of questions, some general and some specific, and urge you to contact us directly with any of these onsittingbourne@swimclubmanager.co.uk. We will continue to review and monitor government / Swim England advice and will provide updates when appropriate and relevant to our club.
Many thanks for supporting the club, and we hope to be able to return to swimming when it is safe and sensible to do so.
In the meantime, we hope that you, your family and friends stay safe and healthy and please follow ongoing advice from the NHS – Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Thanks
SMSC Committee