A Moray surfing instructor who has been banned from entering his local pool after breaching safety policies — despite overwhelming support from his students — has vowed to continue his fight to overturn the “unfair” sanction.
Charity volunteer Kevin Anderson was barred from Moray Leisure Centre for three months after staff raised concerns that he was teaching autistic children in the deep end of the pool.
However, Mr Anderson, who was a former lifeguard at the Elgin centre, feels aggrieved as he insists he carried out rigorous checks and risk assessments before acting as other groups have freely without punishment.
The classes, which are run in conjunction with the National Autistic Society (NAS) Scotland, attract around 35 children – who say they have been left heartbroken by the cancellation and loss of their mentor over the winter.
Since last month’s decision, the pleas of charity leaders and families to have it overturned have fallen on deaf ears.
Without any appeals process available, Mr Anderson’s fate remains solely in the hands of Moray Leisure Centre manager Steve Ash.
Mr Ash maintained yesterday that the ban will stand as the safety of pool users cannot be compromised.
He said: “The main focus for the leisure centre is purely and simply to safeguard the Moray community.
“Kevin worked for us as a pool lifeguard, but when someone is no longer a member of staff, they are treated like any other member of the public.
“Quite simply, having been requested not to go to a specific area, he made it quite clear he was going to go there.
“We have to enforce rules on anyone in this situation.”
Yesterday, Mr Anderson remained determined to persuade Mr Ash to work out a resolution.
He said: “From my experience working at the leisure centre and my knowledge of how the private pools are run, if what I have done is by any means unsafe, then how they have been supervising the pool for the past two years has
been in some way irresponsible.
“To teach deep water safety, you have to be in deep water. I had all the safety measures in place, and I had it risk assessed.
“We are going to continue battling it. It’s a shame because it’s a place I really like and the affect of this has been quite damaging.”