PARENTS have criticised plans to increase the number of children being taught to swim, saying cramped conditions will hold them back.

Many of those with children attending swimming lessons at Chester-le-Street Leisure Centre are unhappy after being told that beginner and improver classes are to be taught in the learner pool at the same time.

They were informed by letter than the move was to reduce the number of children on the waiting list for lessons.

Parent Annabelle Chapman, from South Pelaw, near Chester-le-Street, said: "The trainer pool is not very big. I would have thought the maximum you could teach in there would be 14 to have enough space for them to move, but there will be at least 20.

"It will be especially hard for the little ones listening to an instructor with another instructor shouting at the same time within the space of a small pool, and I'm sure they will find it daunting with the older children there as well."

A spokesman for Chester-le-Street District Council, which runs the centre, said there were a lot of people on the waiting list for swimming lessons and they had been trying to find a way of providing a service for them.