* UPDATE June 2019: Staff have told Loving Dalston that two swimming instructors have been informally reprimanded. Pool-operator GLL has not given an official version of what happened next
A CHILD IN A SWIMMING CLASS was told by his instructor to pee in the outdoors shower at the London Fields Lido.
The primary school pupil had been asked whether he needed the toilet and when he nodded was told “Use the shower.” The child did, finding a nook that allowed some privacy from co-shower users.
Other schoolchilden were told by a second instructor not to bother showering, says the Hackney resident who overheard the exchanges before reporting them to the reception desk at the outdoors pool in the popular Hackney park. The clerk was horrified, as was a passing cleaner, who said he would take up the hygiene breach with the instructors.
The woman, who wanted to be anonymous, said that a few days later she saw one of the instructors again working with children.
GLL/Better, the Greenwich leisure company that runs the pool for Hackney council, said: “At GLL, health and hygiene is of paramount importance in all of our facilities and we take any reports of bad practice extremely seriously.
“We are investigating these reports to ensure that the highest standards are upheld at all times.”
He would not say whether any staff had been suspended pending the result of the investigation.
David Altheer 180619
* Backstory: Lido reopens at last; Absurd pool panic; Lido nears end of repairs for serious leaks; Lido’s off-the-wall horror; Sell Haggerston heritage says Hackney
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