Council banishes three-hour booking queue hell

Residents of South Norfolk are overjoyed with the Council's new Swim School online booking system, which at a stroke, has ended the three-hour queuing misery that many suffered each term.

Queues that snaked around South Norfolk Council's leisure centres in Diss and Wymondham caused a number of complaints which finally came to a head last year when Councillor Michelle Monck, the Cabinet Member for Tourism, Heritage, Enterprise, Culture and Customer Focus, witnessed the mayhem first-hand.

Despite the extra staff called in to help, the overwhelming popularity of the classes meant that Councillor Monck ended up taking bookings herself just to try and ease the situation.

Councillor Monck said:

“When I saw the amount of people queuing to get through the doors, I knew we needed to find a better solution and fast.

"We aim to provide the best levels of customer service possible and in this day and age most people expect to be able to access services online, in person or by the phone. So we decided to bring Swim School bookings online and improve the experience for our customers."

Now 80 percent of all bookings are made over the internet and when Swim School went live this term, there were nearly 500 online bookings in just five days.

Councillor Monck added:

"This is another area where South Norfolk is leading the way, as far as we are aware no other council in the country offers this service online."

Mother, Catherine Lowe, spoke of her relief at the Council's new system:

"The ability to rebook a swimming course online for Wymondhan Leisure Centre is just fantastic and it is really easy and quick to do. After experiencing the seventh circle of hell queuing to rebook in person this is very, very welcome."

Another local mother, Amanda Periam, called the booking system "truly marvellous" and commented:

"After years of terrible frustration, enormous time wasting in queues and a huge dread of previous re-booking systems, this has been a revelation! Thank you for finally sorting out the mess."

Swim School offers a range of classes helping people of all ages become more confident in the water, meet new people and have fun. Currently there are over 1,500 registered pupils ranging from 14 months to 78 years old.

For more information visit: www.south-norfolk.gov.uk/swimschool

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