NI councils: Where is the most expensive leisure centre for a swim?

People like taking a splash in their local pool but not splashing out when paying for it.

But taking a dip in council-run swimming pools costs more or less depending on where you are.

A swim session run by Ards and North Down Council is more than twice the price than that charged by Derry City and Strabane District Council.

So are you paying a postcode premium? BBC News NI has asked all 11 councils for their current prices ahead of this week's local council elections.

Ards and North Down was the most expensive for several leisure services, including gym access and monthly membership costs.

However, Belfast City Council had the biggest bill for certain sports facilities, including five-a-side football, badminton and squash.

Hiring a Belfast badminton court for four players costs £26.40 - more than quadruple the price than in neighbouring Lisburn and Castlereagh, where the maximum charge is £6.

Derry City and Strabane District Council was the cheapest for most leisure services, charging £2.50 per adult for peak-time swimming, or £1.90 during off-peak periods.

However, all the councils offer a range of membership and family packages which include discounts on entry into pools, gyms and certain leisure attractions, in return for a monthly fee.

Paddy Bates, a married father-of-one from Bangor, takes his three-year-old son, Beckett, to their local pool about once a week.

Until now he was unaware he was splashing out more cash than parents in Derry and Strabane.

"The swimming pool being £6 - it's really not good, especially if it's £2.50 elsewhere," he said.

"But we're almost resigned to these illogical, in many cases perhaps unjustifiable, price rises that hurt parents."

Mr Bates described the price differential between council areas as "annoying and disappointing".

"I don't know what the pools are like in Derry, but I'm not really sure it should matter all that much. I'm sure they're up to a fine standard," he said.

The former systems analyst is now a full-time, stay-at-home parent who draws up careful plans on how to spend the weekly budget.

"I have two lists of what I'm going to do with Beckett. I've got the free list - go to the beach, go to the park, go out on the bike," he said.

"Then I have the other list, which is the 'paid for'."

The Bates family recently signed up to monthly membership which gives them discounts on pool and gym sessions, but prior to that they were paying full price to swim in Newtownards and Bangor.

He said the non-membership price made swimming a costly family outing, in the same bracket as ice-skating, a soft-play centre or a trip to the cinema.

Mr Bates argued that swimming should fall under the category of regular healthy exercise rather than an occasional treat, and prices should reflect that.

But are higher prices a reflection of better quality facilities?

Ards and North Down Council owns the Aurora Aquatic and Leisure Complex in Bangor city.

Aurora has a 50m pool, the only swimming facility in Northern Ireland built to meet Olympic standards.

But the 10-year-old pool has a defective floor which the council recently confirmed will have to be replaced.

BBC News NI has asked Ards and North Down Council to comment on why its pool and gym prices are higher than other council areas and is awaiting a response.

Both Ards and North Down Council and Belfast City Council outsourced the running of their leisure centres to separate private operators about a decade ago.

Since 2013, Serco and the Northern Community Leisure Trust (NCLT) have managed Aurora; Bangor Sportsplex and Queen's Leisure Complex in Holywood, County Down.

Their 10-year contract was due to end last month, but the council recently granted them a five-year extension, saying the deal offered "significant savings".

In 2014, Belfast councillors agreed to outsource the city's leisure centres to the London-based social enterprise Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), amid strong opposition from unions.

Belfast is home to some very affluent neighbourhoods, but the council boundary also contains 50 of the top 100 most deprived areas of Northern Ireland.

It terms of monthly membership prices, Belfast was the second most expensive area, with an individual fee of £36.55 per month to access all 15 Belfast leisure centres.

But a GLL spokesperson pointed out that more than half (53%) of its Belfast members qualify for a concessionary rate in monthly fees.

Derry City and Strabane Council features five times in the list of the 10 most deprived areas, according to a 2017 report from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).

Ards and North Down also has pockets of deprivation, but its poorest area was 71st on Nisra's deprivation list.

Carmel Gorman, who is originally from Dublin, has helped teach thousands of people how to swim in Londonderry.

"Keeping costs down and getting more children into the pool is incredibly important," she told BBC News NI.

"Every child should be able to learn how to swim and how much their family earns shouldn't stand in the way of that."

Ms Gorman moved to Derry about 50 years ago after seeing an advert for a swimming instructor post.

She spent more than half a century teaching school children their front crawls and butterfly strokes and remains a key figure in the City of Derry Swimming Club.

She said the council area boasts a wide range of swimming facilities, with some in need of updating.

Ms Gorman hopes renovation work will soon be completed on William Street Baths where she spent many happy years teaching swimming.

Erin Hutcheon takes her son, Henry, to the pool at Derry's Foyle Arena every week where they can both swim for a total cost of about £5.

She said that her 11-year-old is mad about swimming and was devastated when the pools closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"He was taking lessons at that time when everything closed and he was understandably quite upset," she explained.

Ms Hutcheon said that even during a cost-of-living crisis it was great to see so many families taking their children to the pool.

"There is still a good crowd at the arena and I think that's mainly down to it being very reasonably priced," she said.

"It's a great activity for all the family and it's something that myself and Henry can both enjoy together which is brilliant".