Milford Bluetits plead for Lymington & Pennington Town Council to extend sea water baths season

A GROUP of cold-water swimmers is calling for Lymington’s sea water baths to open during the winter months.

The Milford branch of global group the Bluetits wants Lymington & Pennington Town Council to extend the season so they can take a dip throughout the year.

Mandy Jones from the group told the A&T that members are currently “left scrabbling about in the mud” at Sturt Pond crabbing bridge, where they swim if the sea is too rough.

“It seems such a shame that we have to try and swim there when there is a really good sea water baths standing empty for long periods of the year,” she said.

“From January until Spring the sea is often too rough, with too big waves for us to safely go in. So, at the moment we are swimming at the crabbing bridge near Keyhaven on Sturt Pond.

“But it is a bit tricky because unless it is a really high tide, we spend most of the time scrabbling about in the mud rather than actually swimming.”

The baths, which date back to 1833, are due to open this weekend for the summer season.

Mandy (60) and her group, which has members ranging in age from pensioners in their 80s to teenagers, will be celebrating the opening by taking a dip while wearing period costumes.

“We have approached Lymington and Pennington Town Council, which lease the baths out, about whether the season could be extended there,” she said. “Cold water swimming is so popular – I am sure it would be commercially viable.

“The council said they would talk to the leaseholder, who we have also asked about the extension, but so far we have got nowhere.”

Mandy said her group were willing to buy season tickets so the leaseholder “knows exactly how many people are going to be possibly using it”.

“If the council or the leaseholder did some research to see if it is going to be worth their while to extend and found it wasn’t viable, we would accept that.

“But at the moment we can’t get past the starting point to actually have it even considered.”

The baths are closed for maintenance during the winter, but Mandy, from Milford, says she believes this could be done from October to December with the baths re-opening in January.

Mandy was prompted to raise the question following the recent death of Cynthia Covey, who as the A&T recently reported fought for the baths to be restored after they fell into disuse.

“They are such an important community asset and it would be lovely for people such as our group to be able to use them for more of the year,” she said.