Man bans catching on

Stuff reports:

A man ban at one of Hamilton’s public pools is in the works to lure more women into the water, but critics have slammed the idea as “separatist thinking”.

Under a proposal being worked on by city council staff, men could be excluded from the Gallagher Aquatic Centre during twice-weekly women-only swimming sessions.

The initiative is tipped to be launched in June.

A women-only programme was piloted at the aquatic centre last year but was canned after swimming numbers dropped away.

Council swimming and recreation manager Mathew Bayliss said staff were still assessing public demand for the proposal.

“We’re confident if we relaunch this programme it will be successful as we will be proactively pitching it to the community,” Bayliss said.

The women-only sessions could be up to 90 minutes long – during which time men would be banned from the aquatic centre.

That’s fair enough – so long as male ratepayers no longer have to fund the pool.