ON the evening of January 30 my daughter and I went to Darwen Baths and paid £4.70 for two adult swims.

As usual, the changing rooms smelled more like a public toilet, but when we got to the pool, it was overrun by a pack of Brownies supposedly practising for a forthcoming gala.

Surely, we could have been told at reception that they were in the baths and that, due to their large numbers, we would find it difficult to swim lengths.

Had we been told, we would not have gone for a swim. Instead, we found difficulty in swimming a full length without some child swimming into us or jumping on top of us. £4.70 was, therefore, wasted.

This is not a 'ban children' campaign, but, with better organisation, surely a lane could have been roped off for length swimmers, still allowing the Brownies to practise their swimming.

Darwen Baths is the only pool in the area that has no facilities for adults-only swimming. Hyndburn, Shadsworth and Daisyfield all offer a combination of adults-only, ladies-only, and lengths-only swimming facilities both during the day and the evenings and also open until 10pm.

Would it be too much to ask for the management to to make 7-8pm adults-only swimming or, even better, lane swimming only?

Hyndburn and Shadsworth are both cheaper than Darwen, where the prices keep on going up, but the service remains poor.

ROSE BOOTH (Mrs), Baron Street, Darwen.

FOOTNOTE: Steve Rigby, senior assistant director of community, leisure and culture services, said: "Darwen swimming pool is very popular at peak times and there are a number of special sessions. In fact, Swim Fit is a lane-only session on Mondays, 6-7pm; Thursdays, 9-10pm and Fridays 6-7pm.

"If there is a demand, we will look at introducing more lane-only sessions for adults on Tuesday or Wednesdays.