FREE swimming could be taken away from children in Monmouthshire.

The county has seen a huge

reduction in its free swimming grant awarded to every council by the Welsh Government.

The grant enables Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) to offer free swimming for children in the holidays and free swimming for over 60s in term times.

MCC faces a reduction in this budget of 43 per cent.

The original budget for Monmouthshire was £90,999 which has now been reduced to £51,600, a reduction of £39,399.

Alongside Monmouthshire, other rural counties across Wales will receive severe cuts to the same budget. With Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Powys also facing a reduction of more than 40 per cent.

Councillor Bob Greenland, responsible for leisures services at MCC, said the decision was "absolutely inexplicable" and accused the Welsh Government of "only worrying about their areas in the south."

He said: "I became aware of a letter which was from the deputy minister for culture, sport and tourism where, in effect, he was announcing a change to the free swimming grants that this council receives. Through this grant we've been able to offer free swimming for children in the holidays and free swimming for over 60s in term times.

"He was announcing a huge reduction in our grant here in Monmouthshire. That is bad enough. The fact it was being announced after we set the budget and within weeks of implementing the budget is, in my view, unacceptable.

"How on earth they are going to continue their commitment to free swimming by taking away virtually all of the free swimming budget is unknown.

"We will have to make some hard decisions. We don't want our children to suffer because of a Welsh Government decision but our budgets this year are extremely tight.

"To find that money in a week is going to be hard.

"It is likely some of our children could suffer as a result of the Welsh Government decision."

Councillor Greenland said he hoped free swimming for children wouldn't be scrapped in Monmouthshire but said that its inevitable users would feel the effect of the cuts somewhere.

Meanwhile David Davies, prospective parliamentary candidate for Monmouth, has condemned the decision of Welsh Government minister Ken Skates to take away funding for free swimming lessons in Monmouthshire.

He said: "The Labour Assembly Government has made a promise to fund free swimming lessons for all children and money was put aside for every council including Monmouth.

"Then with very little warning the Minster Ken Skates decided to withhold the funding from Monmouthshire.

"This is yet another example of how we are treated as second class citizens by Welsh Labour who hand over less for public services than to any other local authority in Wales.

"I hope all candidates in the forthcoming election will want to campaign against the unfair way we are treated here and will commit themselves to demanding a fairer settlement for the county from the Welsh Assembly."

In the letter from Ken Skates AM, he says the overall aim of the proposals is to "make every child a swimmer".

He said: "The focus will now be on teaching children to swim rather than providing them free time at a swimming pool.

"These are obviously very difficult times and it is unfortunate that some local authorities have been adversely affected by this change. However, I can assure you that Monmouthshire will still be in receipt of funding for the free swimming initiative, albeit at a reduced level."

Labour leader at MCC, Councillor Dimitri Batrouni, said: "We have been fighting this decision, but I urge the council to plug the financial hole for this year.

"This will mean Monmouthshire's children will be unaffected while giving time to gather the statistics to counter this decision."