THE site co-ordinator of the Bude Swim Safe group has voiced his disappointment at the decision by the RNLI to stop holding the sessions in the town.

Swim Safe was launched by Swim England, the national governing body for swimming in England, and the RNLI. It offers free outdoor swimming and water safety sessions for children aged between seven and 14.

But only three sites in Cornwall have been confirmed to deliver free Swim Safe sessions for children this summer.

Bill Williams, from Bude, who co-ordinated the sessions, said: “It has been a privilege and honour to have been involved with the delivery of Swim Safe in Bude since the very first sessions, run by the Amateur Swimming Association (Now Swim England) at the Sea Pool in Bude six years ago. The first three years I helped as a volunteer and the last two years I became the site co-ordinator for Bude and developed the programme to run in the open sea, from Summerleaze Beach and in the Sea Pool as the tide dictated.

“It is with sadness that I feel the people of Bude need to know that there is insufficient funding to allow the project to run in Bude in 2018. In very basic terms there is no increase in funding for Swim England and a huge increase in sites that wish to hold Swim Safe. Sadly Bude is one of three sites in the South West to have lost our honour of hosting the project this year.”

Bill explained that he, and his staff, would have to find around £13,000 to enable them to continue running Swim Safe.

On a positive note, Bill said the RNLI hope to incorporate some Swim Safe messages in to their annual ‘Hit the Surf’ project so children local to the Bude area should be able to obtain some life saving advice.

However, the holiday visitors to will have to stay close to their parents.

Despite his disappointment at the news, Bill wanted to congratulate and thank the people involved in organising, running and teaching Swim Safe over the previous years, particularly those who, in 2016 and 2017, helped him make delivering it such fun.

He said: “I cannot name you all, but without the volunteers from the Lifeboat shop in Bude, the volunteers from the Friends of Bude Sea Pool, the teachers and lifeguards who came out in rain and sunshine, some from as far away as Kent and my close friends and family, I would never have been able to deliver Swim Safe. It was an honour to work with you all and, with every effort to secure funding for 2019 I hope we can do it again.

“From trawling the beaches and car parks to recruiting children to take part, from issuing at least 20 wetsuits and rash vests every 45 minutes for six hours and then taking the suits and vests back and washing them, from booking up to 120 children per day into the complicated booking system and then trying to chase children to take part in before and after surveys, the lifeguard who gave her 15 minutes of lifesaving advice talk every session then had to keep track of all participants during every session and the teachers who spent six hours a day stood in the surf or the sea pool to deliver the messages. Without all of you, Bude Swim Safe would never have been delivered to so many people and without you, Swim England managers would never have classed our group as the best run outfit. Well done everyone and many, many thanks from me.”

Guy Boterill, Swim Safe project manager, said: “The RNLI and Swim England work with a range of local partners to deliver Swim Safe sessions around the UK each year. Since starting in Bude in 2013, Swim Safe has grown into a national programme, which will span 26 coastal and inland locations around the UK this summer. We want as many children as possible to be able to take part in a free Swim Safe session, while making the best use of the resources available.

“This year we received 40 expressions of interest from potential delivery partners, which were of a very high standard and has given us the opportunity to take Swim Safe to some new places for the first time. Unfortunately, the application from Bude did not meet the criteria as well as others this year. However, the door will be open for Swim Safe to return to Bude in the future.“

Of the three sites chosen in Cornwall, Newquay and Falmouth will have school sessions and a site in St Ives will have public sessions.

If anyone would like to sponsor a session in Bude, which would be around £13,000, but possibly cheaper if the group can use borrowed equipment, please email Bill at [email protected]