Wyre Forest Glade Swimming Pool
31 December 2007
I've been to the Wyre Forest Glade Leisure Centre before, but that was when I was living in Coventry. Now I'm living in Redditch (only about 20 mins drive away), we took our 2 year old daughter along.
The leisure centre is one of only a few, non seaside, council run swimming pools with wave machine and flume slides. There is a public car park opposite (80p for 2 hours).
Prices were reasonable, including free for under 3's. They also have a number of days during the school holidays where swimming is free for all under 16s, and this was one of them. Despite this the centre was not over busy.
They have a limited number (3 I think) of family changing rooms. These are however the largest family changing rooms I've ever seen, with enough space for several people in them. Some include a toddler seat and they all have baby changing table. I see the family changing rooms for those with young children that want either both parents to help or need the baby changing board. Some were however been used by those who could have used the normal changing facilities. For us this did not cause any problems as we dropped lucky in getting one of the rooms.
The pool itself is primarily the wave pool. The wave machine operates for about 5 minutes every 20 minutes or so. The waves are not particularly large (if you are used to Center Parcs, these are much smaller). There are two large flume slides for older children and adults. This is not a pool designed for serious swimming.
The one thing that is lacking is any kind of dedicated baby and toddler pool. There is a shallow end of the wave pool (beach effect) and there are 3 static seals to look at, but no slide or anything else to entertain toddlers.
Our daughter had a really good time and we certainly plan to return again soon.
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