FURIOUS older swimmers are up in arms after the council pulled the plug on their free sessions in the pool.

A group of regulars at the Waterfront Leisure Centre have united to protest at the decision by councillors to make them pay hundreds of pounds a year from now on.

As part of a £3m round of cuts in the budget last week it was decided to axe free swimming for the over-60s.

Now the older swimmers hope to force Inverclyde Council into a u-turn — as their 600-strong petition gathers momentum.

They have also fired off an angry protest letter to local authority leader Stephen McCabe.

Outraged Ann Munro, 68, of Bogiewood Road in Port Glasgow said: “I think Inverclyde Council should be ashamed of themselves for withdrawing funding for the over-60s swimmers.

“We are an easy target.

“There are people who go there for medical reasons as well as for company.

“For some, the folk they swim with are the only people they see from one morning to a next.

“Wellbeing is very important for older people and if they cannot afford to pay for swimming then loneliness sets in and it is a killer. 

“I still work to keep myself busy but there are people in there who are in their late 70s.

“Most of these people have worked all their lives here and paid their taxes and some still do.”

The seething swimmers say that some of them go to the pool up to five days a week, something which could now cost them £4.10 every day or £29 for a pass.

Andy Hunter, 79, who has been swimming almost every morning for over 20 years, is angry that the council are spending £500,000 to help bring people in to the area as part of a repopulation plan while getting rid of a popular fitness scheme.

Andy said: “They won’t look after the people who are here.”

Helen Doran, 75, from Greenock’s Stoneleigh Road, who swims with her husband Patrick, added: “The council is supposed to support keeping older people active and healthy. They will get more out of funding free swimming than they put in.

“Now they will have more people isolated and needing care in their home.

“We don’t take anything from the council apart from free swimming and now that has gone.”

The senior citizens have all signed a petition slamming the decision but Inverclyde Council are refusing to budge.

A council spokesman said: “An extensive public consultation was carried out on a range of potential savings and was an opportunity for local people to inform the budget-setting process.

“More than half of the people who did take part supported removing this particular subsidy.”