Hatfield's swimming club for disabled people has £4,143 from Sport England for pool hire and training, in its 60th year. How to join, and how clubs can bid.

Platypus Swimming Club, the Hatfield charity that runs swimming sessions for disabled people, has won £4,143 from Sport England. The grant arrives in the club’s 60th anniversary year.

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council announced the award on 19 October. The money will go on:

  • pool hire
  • DBS checks for volunteers
  • first aid training

The club’s chairman, Graeme Rollings, said the grant would let it “continue providing fun and inclusive swimming sessions for its members”. He thanked the council for paying for the bid to be written.

How the bid was won

The club applied through the Hatfield Community Sports Fund. The council uses the fund to pay a specialist firm, Funding 4 Sport, to write grant bids for Hatfield clubs that work with disabled people.

The offer is part of No Limits 2026, Hertfordshire’s year of disability sport and physical activity. It is run by the county’s sport partnership with the Herts Disability Sports Foundation and the Activity Alliance, according to the council’s bid-writing page.

Councillor Max Holloway, the council’s executive member for community and leisure, said clubs like Platypus “provide a vital service to our disabled residents, young and old”.

What the club does

Platypus has the whole pool at Hatfield Swim Centre on Lemsford Road for two hours every Sunday, from 3pm to 5pm. The sessions are for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities such as autism and ADHD, and other medical needs, according to the club’s website. Families and carers swim with them.

It is a relaxed swim rather than a lesson. The club says it runs 48 or 49 weeks a year, with breaks at Easter and Christmas. Its swimmers also compete in about six galas a year, mostly under the National Association of Swimming Clubs for the Handicapped.

The club is a registered charity, number 1092634, and is run by volunteers. It won Community Sports Club at this year’s One Welwyn Hatfield Community Awards.

What it means for you

If you or someone you care for could use the sessions, the club’s joining steps are:

  1. Contact the club for an informal chat about the swimmer’s disability and needs, at platypusswimmingclub@gmail.com.
  2. Come to a free trial session on a Sunday between 3pm and 5pm.
  3. Fill in a membership form for each family member joining.
  4. Pay the annual membership at the pool. The club’s website gives it as £10 a person, with under-twos free.

Non-swimmers and junior members must be accompanied in the water by a responsible adult.

If you can volunteer, the club says it needs one or two more helpers in the water and in the changing rooms. Helpers get associate membership and a swim at the end of the session.

If you run a Hatfield club or group working with disabled people, you can ask for the same free bid-writing help. You must be a constituted not-for-profit organisation, and your sessions must take place within Hatfield. The council says places are limited and the offer closes once it has enough expressions of interest. Details are on the Hatfield Community Sports Fund page, or email sport@welhat.gov.uk.

Other things to do in the area are in our Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield what’s on guide.