WATER safety and learning to swim are being tackled with one stroke.
During Drowning Prevention Week, Warwick District Council has been promoting the lifesaving education which is available locally and also highlighting the potential dangers of water particularly during the warm weather.
In partnership with Everyone Active, WDC is encouraging parents to enrol their children in swimming lessons at an early age, giving them not only access to fitness and fun, but also to teach them a life skill.
Everyone Active offers a programme of lessons to children as young as four months at the council owned leisure centres at St Nicholas Park, Warwick and Newbold Comyn, Leamington.
In addition, they work with local primary schools to ensure that all children from years one to six get the chance to learn
to swim.
WDC’s active communities spokesperson Coun Jim Sinnott said: “Every year Drowning Prevention Week highlights the dangers of water and the simple steps we can all take together to stay safe. Downing is preventable and by working together with parents and schools to provide early education and build water confidence we can save lives.”
Alex Fuoco-Lang, contract manager at Everyone Active, added: “Learning to swim is a vital life skill that every child should experience. Drowning Prevention Week is an important opportunity to emphasise this and encourage both water confidence and water safety.
“We welcome parents and families thinking of enrolling their child onto our award-winning learn to swim programme to gain these incredibly valuable lifesaving skills.”
Warm weather, the end of exams and approaching school holidays has seen Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service intensify messaging on keeping safe around open water, recognising the dangers and the measures to prevent incidents and keep residents safe, with key hotpots in the district including the River Leam at Victoria Bridge and River Avon behind the Saxon
Mill.
WDC is also reminding residents of the dangers of jumping from bridges due to the unknown depth of the water and rocks.
