Wotton Pool operates a very economical whole-pool booking system that is available on the website — and you can hire the pool for an hour for £65 (or £45 if we have slots to spare at short notice). But there are many who do not have the facilities to do this nor are able to afford it so we operate afternoon public sessions that are turn-up-and-pay at the gate.

We also have a maximum pool occupancy of 40 swimmers

So if the weather is good, it’s not uncommon for people to arrive early and queue to get in. And if the weather is really good it’s not uncommon for there to be more than 40 people in the queue — sometimes more than 80.

If this happens then we do our best to help:

On weekdays during school term time we can only let the first 40 in because the 3:30 pm session is only about 80 minutes long. Later people in the queue are welcome to wait and take the places of people who leave early.

At all weekends and weekdays during school holidays the 2 pm session and the 10 am Sunday family session is about 110 minutes long. So we will let the first 40 in and:

• if there are a few extras then we will ask them to wait to replace people leaving early

• if there are many extras then we will divide the session into two 45 minute sessions, give queue-place tokens to the next 40 swimmers and ask them to return at about 2:45 pm (10:45 am). We will then ask the pool to be vacated so that the second group can get a swim

And please don’t hold places in the queue for absent friends — it is very disappointing for people further back if late-comers arrive and step in.

Queuing can be a difficult situation for both the swimmers and the pool staff so thanks for reading this…