Want to know where to swim since the closure of Harlow Pool? Harlow Council - with help from Harlow Education Consortium, the Schools Sports Partnership and others - has been arranging alternative swimming options.

All primary schools that used Harlow Pool have been found alternative venues for swimming, and schools that are making their pools available to other schools have been offered swimming equipment from Harlow Pool free of charge.

Various clubs that used the pool have been relocated: Harlow Penguins to Burnt Mill School, and the Sub-Aqua Club to Brays Grove. Alternatives are being sought for Harlow Life-Saving Club, which needs weekend use. Harlow Penguins are also hoping to make more use of Haileybury pool - and the council is also working with them to explore possible bids for lottery and other funding.

People who received swimming lessons from the Council at Harlow Pool have been told about other options, such as Harlow Penguins, FTA Dippers, and Broxbourne Pool.

Attempts to encourage private pools - for example in hotels and leisure clubs - to open their doors to the public have not been successful. Public use of Stewards Pool, when it has been refurbished, is being explored. And Broxbourne Council has paid for the postage for a letter to everyone on the Harlow Swimming Pool database with information about public swimming at Broxbourne.

Meanwhile, building of the new sports centre with swimming pool near Harlow College continues apace, with the intention of opening late next year.