Harrogate District Diving Club is planning to resume training in April following this week’s government roadmap out of lockdown.

Outdoor pools and lidos can reopen from March 29.

Indoor pools can reopen for individual use or within household groups from April 12. Indoor children’s activities, including diving club sessions for under 18s, can also resume from this date.

But organised indoor adult sport, including diving, is not allowed to resume until May 17.

This means divers aged up to 18 will be jumping back into the pool from April 12.

Leanne Jalland, the club’s chair, said lockdown had highlighted the club’s mental health benefits and members were looking forward to returning.

She said:

“One of the most important things we have learnt from this pandemic as a club is how diving as a sport benefits both the mental and physical wellbeing of our divers.

“Therefore, we are keen to bring those benefits to others in our community and make diving accessible to all.”

The club hopes to introduce a disability diving squad in April.

It ran, in conjunction with Harrogate Borough Council, one of only two disability diving schemes in England but these haven’t taken place since March last year.

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The diving club is working with Brimhams Active, which is the new company brought in by the council to run leisure facilities, to ensure diving has a future in the district.

Mark Tweedie managing director of Brimhams Active said:

“We are working with our clubs to produce a long term development plan for aquatics.

“This plan will ensure we make the most of the opportunity presented by the multimillion pound council investments to improve the district’s leisure centres over the next three years.”

Harrogate District Diving Club is now back in the water after six months, but with reduced hours and coaches.

Since the reopening of pools in July the club has been eager to be allowed back to training at The Hydro. The club said its six months out of training had a “detrimental effect”.

Members’ hours in the water have been restricted. The club now only has one 2.5 hours session a week, while pre-covid it had 20 hours in the water each week.

The divers have been placed in smaller groups, with each group given 30 minutes of coaching each week. To keep it covid-safe each squad returned week by week and is now back to full capacity.

The number of club coaches has also been reduced. Two were redeployed during the pandemic: as council employees, they were sent to work in other areas in need of extra staff.

Graeme Cairns, who previously coached the council’s learn to dive scheme, has been brought in to train all of the divers on their return. Mike Gill, who is still deployed elsewhere, is returning to coach on a voluntary basis.

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Club chair Leanne Jalland said:

“It is great to see the divers back training in the pool. Seeing the joy and smiles of the divers each week, as a new squad enters the water and takes that first dive back into the water, makes all the hard work to get them back in the pool worthwhile.

“We have seen across the country many diving clubs have not been so fortunate, any amount of pool time is better than no pool time at all. We have seen first hand how good it is for their mental wellbeing during these uncertain times.”

Over lockdown the divers had a weekly zoom workout focusing on dryland training. The club said the main aim of this was to encourage the divers development even without the water.

The club has trained in Harrogate for more than 20 years with sporting stars including Olympic gold medallist Jack Laugher learning to dive at the club.

Harrogate District Diving Club has expressed its frustration that it has not been given a date for training to resume at the Hydro.

Indoor swimming pools are allowed to reopen from tomorrow but Harrogate Borough Council is yet to confirm when it will open its pools. The diving club has been left unable to make plans or reassure its members.

The lack of a decision has left the club worrying about the impact on its members’ mental health. As a team sport, diving develops social as well as physical skills and, after months of lockdown, the club is desperate to give its members a date to look forward to.

Leanne Jalland, chair of the diving club, said:

“It is difficult to make plans without a date to return to training in the water.  We have to take each week by week, and come up with a variety of ways to keep our divers engaged and motivated but this is incredibly difficult. The response I have had from a lot parents is dismay and frustration, which is understandable.

“I am confident that by working with Swim England and the council we could ensure a safe return once it is allowed.  The club has received no official communication from the Hydro about any update for returning to the pool and only received a response from the council after pressing for a date to return last week.”

The club has trained in Harrogate for over 20 years with sporting stars including Olympic gold medallist Jack Laugher learning to dive at the club. It is a tradition the club hopes to continue once it starts up again.

The diving club are waiting for a confirmed date to return to training.

The council has said its reviewing the safety measures in place at the Hydro before opening.

Currently the club’s two coaches, both council employees, have been redeployed to other essential services by the council. The club has asked for one of its coaches to return to the team once the pool reopens.

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A council spokesperson said:

“We are working hard to reintroduce leisure facilities for all our residents – not just the diving club – but we need to make sure this is done in line with government guidelines so that our customers, and staff, are kept safe. We will then look at what additional services can be offered over the coming weeks.

“But this will only happen if staff can be relieved from providing statutory services. Any decision to do so will need to be carefully considered and the potential benefit for those people using leisure facilities balanced against the needs of residents and vulnerable people. The diving club has received several emails explaining this position already.”

“I was thrilled to hear the announcement, our club has been actively involved in the Swim England Open Our Pools campaign so we are delighted. Our club has been doing all we can to ensure that our divers can return to training safely.

“All of our club members are competitive divers and were training for competitions pre-covid. Some of them have trained every week for years in preparation for these competitions, it’s a huge part of their life. Understandably it has been hard for a lot of our divers for this to suddenly stop. Like the rest of the country we are embracing a new normal.”

Swimming classes will look a little different as safety measures are implemented.

“We will be starting to make plans but we still have a lot of work to do including following all the guidelines. We’ll be starting very small to get confident, for example we’ll have to reduce the class sizes to 1-2-1s and 1-2-2s just to make it safe. Those that can swim 25m and be left alone can return to their lessons. We are all very excited to get back to teaching.”

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Harrogate Borough Council, who operate the majority of swimming pools in the district, said:

“We’re delighted the government has advised it is safe for leisure facilities to open from 25 July. Customer safety comes first. So we’re busy working on new guidance as well as staff training and cleaning procedures. We’ll have more news in the coming days of what facilities will open and when.”