I WOULD suggest the Mercury needs to check out the facts before printing open letters castigating one of the Weston's sporting successes.

I WOULD suggest the Mercury needs to check out the facts before printing open letters castigating one of the Weston's sporting successes.

Unfortunately Jason Beauchemin (Opinion, February 5) has been completely misinformed regarding the hiring out of the pool on the weekend of January 31. The pool was in fact hired by Gloucester ASA not WSM Swimming Club, a detail I obtained by simply asking the receptionist at Hutton Moor.

Can I suggest the Mercury runs an article highlighting the positive aspects of WSMSC rather than running down a club that has been in existence for over 100 years and has provided thousands of children with the opportunity to learn to swim, exercise, compete and learn all about the team work and dedication that are needed for success in whatever area of life they enter.

Many of the club's swimmers train either early in the morning or late at night, sessions sometimes not finishing until 10pm. For older performance swimmers this can be a seven times a week activity, always supported by a willing band of coaching and supporting adult helpers.

WSMSC only hires the pool for one compete weekend during the whole year and this is for our annual open meeting, our main fundraising event. This is traditionally the Easter weekend where we normally see over 400 swimmers from all parts of the country coming along to Weston, bringing the town's hard pressed tourist industry valuable clients, whilst also allowing our club members the opportunity to compete in competition with their peers from other regions.

Other galas at Hutton Moor are booked by a variety of organisations including South West Regional ASA, Somerset ASA, WSMSC and other clubs with Somerset. The majority of these events do not start until, as your correspondent suggested, 5pm on a Saturday evening.

You may be also interested to know that the club last year paid about �50,000 in fees towards pool hire and if this income was not being provided to the council I'm sure that we would all be faced with either an ever increasing council tax bill or the closure of an excellent facility.

TREVOR BRAMWELL

Honorary Secretary, Weston-super-Mare Swimming Club

Editors Note: We apologise for not checking the claims made in last week's letter and we will make sure we do so should the matter rise again. We wholeheartedly applaud Weston Swimming Club for the sterling role it plays in our community.