More public swimming after 6pm at Carnegie Leisure Centre

At the South and West Fife area committee, Councillor Andrew Verrecchia said he'd had a "bee in my bonnet" about access to the pool at the venue on Dunfermline's Pilmuir Street.

He raised the issue during a discussion of the trust's performance and said: "I get it's in Dunfermline and we're not the Dunfermline area committee but most of our constituents will probably go there to use the swimming pool.

"After 6pm during the week, if you were a member of the public wanting to swim you just couldn't get in.

Public swimming times have been extended at Carnegie Leisure Centre in Dunfermline. (Image: Newsquest)

"You were locked out due to the usage by private clubs and also lessons but I notice now that trend seems to have been reversed and it looks to be a fairer access to the pool?"

The timetable was changed in August 2019 due to cost-cutting measures, which sparked anger from users as opening hours were cut.

That reduced the times available for public swimming but recent improvements - there are now evening slots Monday to Friday - have been welcomed.

Scott Urquhart, the trust's head of operations, said: "I'm delighted to hear positive feedback in terms of public swimming.

"It's something we've actively been working towards in terms of putting more public swimming in place.

"Really that came about as a hangover from Covid and because of the restrictions we had to work with the clubs.

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"The Carnegie Leisure Centre has five aquatic discipline clubs that use the venue and there will be not other venue in Fife that has that number of clubs using a facility.

"They're all community clubs so there's a difficult balance to be struck in relation to club access, learning to swim and public swimming.

"But as pool times have become available we've really prioritised putting public swimming back in place after 6pm as we do recognise, after Covid, that had to be addressed."