PUPILS at Bishops Cannings CoE Primary School, near Devizes, are missing out on swimming lessons because John Bentley School in Calne has taken up more of its allotted time.

John Bentley School pupils have priority use of the pool at the White Horse Leisure Centre in Calne.

The news that John Bentley School was taking up more swimming time was only broken to Bishops Cannings Primary School last week.

Bishops Cannings School has been sending its pupils to the pool at Calne for 20 years. This year a total of 90 pupils were expecting to use the pool.

Its headteacher David Wade said: "At the end of last term we had left it with the White Horse Leisure Centre that we would have our usual swimming slot of half an hour a week.

"We had a letter from the leisure centre last week, which would have been the first week that our pupils would have gone swimming, saying we didn't have a space anymore.

"We have been using the swimming pool at Calne for 20 years and this is a bolt out of the blue."

Mr Wade said the leisure centre had said it would review the situation in January but Mr Wade has written to the leisure centre asking if a half hour slot can be found elsewhere during the week.

Mr Wade has also contacted Devizes and Marlborough leisure centres to see if either could accommodate the children but they are unable to.

"It is annoying because we were told of this at such a late stage it meant we have not been able to do anything about it," he said.

Adrian Jones, the managing director of North Wiltshire Leisure Ltd, which runs the White Horse Leisure Centre, said: "The dual use agreement of the pool with the county council states John Bentley School can have 30 hours of time in the swimming pool per week

"John Bentley School are well within their rights to secure up to 30 hours."

Anne Burrell, the head of John Bentley School, said in a statement: "Contractually we pay a significant sum of money to have up to 30 hours of pool time at the leisure centre.

"However, what is important is ensuring all our young people in our area have as many opportunities to swim as possible.

"We have excellent relationships with our partner primaries and have been working to see how we can resolve the situation."