LEARNING to swim in a council run pool could soon be a luxury, only affordable for the children of Scotland’s well off, after a new report revealed skyrocketing price hikes in the cost of lessons.

The Liberal Democrats described the findings in a paper from Sport Scotland as “hugely worrying”.

The national agency asked the country’s 32 local authorities how much they charge for a number of “benchmark” activities.

While there were slight increases in the cost of most sports, the biggest single rise was in the cost of juvenile swimming lessons.

Last year, the mean price across Scotland was £6.66 a lesson, up from £5.72 the year before.

That works out at an inflation busting 16.4 per cent increase.

In 2017, the average cost of kid’s lesson was just £4.42.

Meanwhile, adult swimming lessons have only increased from £7.17 to £7.78 over the year, a more modest but still hefty 8.5%.

The cost of a swimming session has barely risen at all.

In 2021, the average cost for a child was £2.80. Last year it had moved to £2.82.

For adults, it moved from £4.66 to £4.69.

Across Scotland, nine of the country’s local authorities hiked up the cost of the lessons.

Only two reduced the price.

Details of the jump comes at a difficult time for pool operators.

Rocketing energy prices, a hike in the cost of chemicals, staff shortages and swingeing cuts to council budgets have left many local authorities and the arm length organisations that run their sports offering struggling.

Most of the services are reliant on income from paying customers, but there has been a significant drop in the number of people heading back to the gym following the pandemic.

Already, in a bid to stave off closure, pools across the country are taking drastic money-saving measures, lowering water temperatures, and reducing opening hours.

All this comes amid some of the worst drowning figures on record.

Last year, there were 57 accidental drowning deaths in Scotland, three times the rate in England.

Eight of those were aged between five and 19, making it the fourth-biggest killer of children.

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy and communities spokesperson Willie Rennie said the Scottish Government needed to do more.

He said: “Every child should be able to access sport opportunities like this one, so it’s hugely worrying that rising costs are posing a threat to that.

“After years of slashes to council budgets by this SNP Government, we need higher funding and better strategies so that every child has the choice to participate in a full array of extracurricular activities, no matter their background.

“Scotland lags behind England where swimming is part of the school curriculum.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have been working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sportscotland and Scottish Water to develop ways of providing opportunities for children to become confident, safer and competent swimmers.

“Scottish Swimming aims to run a number of pilot schemes to support schools to understand and consider different approaches and models of delivery to help educate and let children experience the water."

“We are fully aware that energy costs are an issue facing many sports facilities. Given the limited levers available to us, the Scottish Government will continue to press the UK Government to act on the cost of living and energy prices urgently, in order to address the problem at source.”

The Sport Scotland review also revealed that the average cost of a hall hire for 5-a-side football has gone from £43.76 to £45.33, while the rent for an hour on a badminton court was £11.21, up from £10.87.

There have been some drops. The average price for a membership to access gym, swim, health suite and fitness classes was £366.81 in 2022, down from £370.35 the year before.

However, one local authority was offering all of that for £270 a year, while another was charging £705.