We are now in the four-year run-up to the London Olympics and many young people have been motivated by the medals which were gained this year by swimmers.

If now is not the time to invest in our swimmers and raise the profile of the health benefits for all, then that time will never come.

I have long felt frustrated with Worthing Council, which seems to lack vision and drive, judging purely by the tangible results.

Teville Gate remains the shameful first impression of people who come here by train.

At the turn of the Millennium, like many others, I was full of optimism when my daughter, at the age of five, had the prospect of a multiplex cinema and a modern pool to enhance her formative years.

Now it seems she will be an adult before anything happens.

We can look at Chichester with a quarter of the population of Worthing and they have a respectable pool and a ten-screen cinema.

Burgess Hill has a beautiful swimming pool complex in The Triangle, but it is not very handy for Worthing.

The only town in West Sussex that can compete with Worthing, with a similar population of around 100,000, is, of course, Crawley, where they have an all-weather shopping mall, a beautiful park, a 15-screen multiplex and a state-of-the-art Olympic-sized swimming pool.

On that comparison, it seems to be 4-0 to Crawley.

It seems to me we residents of Worthing should be congratulated for our good nature and patience.

However, I think we should all reflect upon the fact that people do not come here to die; they come here to live.

Mick Frayne
Worthing

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