Pool opens a month early due to demand
BBCAn open-air swimming pool has opened a month earlier than usual due to demand from its community.
Cirencester Open Air Swimming Pool in Gloucestershire welcomed its first swimmers on Friday morning at 06:30 BST, to what was a fully-booked session.
Pool manager Ian Johnson said people living in the Cotswolds town meet "lifelong friends" at the pool, which usually opens in late May and closes in early September.
Season ticket holder David said: "To have [the pool season] starting earlier and finishing later, particularly with climate change and having warmer weather, it really gives us a much longer season, so that's great."
The charity that runs the pool, near Cirencester Park, it relies "totally" on a group of 30 to 40 volunteers, Johnson said, including engineers, a qualified lifeguarding team and tuck shop staff.
"We did a survey. People have often mentioned they'd like a longer season and are always sad when we shut at the end of the summer," he said.
"As long as it's viable then we'll do it, and we have the mixture of lifeguards that enabled us to do it this time around."
Johnson said the pool is "a real community pool", as residents banded together about 50 years ago to save it from closure.
David is one swimmer who has enjoyed the pool community, having first taken a dip in 1991 when he moved to Cirencester with his family.
"Every year, me and my wife and, when they were living with us, our daughters were regulars here and we love it," he said.
"It's a fantastic facility and we love supporting it. I swim regularly, three times a week and without fail when we're around tend to meet the same people, lovely crowd of people we swim with."
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