The real cost of swimming

As the popularity of outdoor swimming increases, so does the number of places where you have to pay to swim. In this rapidly-evolving landscape, how can outdoor swimming be affordable or accessible, when it’s now such big business? Ellie Tennant investigates…

Participants take to the water at the Swimmable Cities Summit, June 2025

Image: Jan De Groen

It’s a Sunday morning at Queenford Lakes, South Oxfordshire and the 20acre overflow car park – as usual – is rammed. Lobster-pink swimmers in caps and dry robes clutch thermos flasks and huddle shivering and chatting in groups, while serious-looking ‘tri guys’ peel off their wetsuits and down post-swim protein shakes. It costs members here £7.25 per swim (or £6.25 if you bulk buy in advance) and on a busy session in the summer, more than 450 swimmers can turn up.

Steve Glanfield, owner-operator at the venue, uses only word-of-mouth and social media to promote the popular open water swimming sessions. He has been working at the lake for 15 years and also manages Oxford Water Skiing Club (OWSC) on-site.

“The business is largely staffed by family members – my mum and my two nephews man the kiosk where swimmers check in and out, I manage the car-parking, and safety is handled by our team of dedicated volunteers who do hour-long shifts on kayaks in return for free swims,” explains Steve.

Queenford Lakes was – until recently – a National Open Water Coaching Association (NOWCA) venue. Swims were booked via the ACTiO app and every swimmer paid an annual membership fee to NOWCA of £15. However, the venue is now in the process of switching over to their own web-based software system: Swimscan (swimscan.com). Swimmers at Queenford have been told not to renew their NOWCA membership and to switch to Swimscan instead. The aim is to sign up many more open water swimming venues in the future.

At the moment, NOWCA charges a £20 membership fee and keeps £15 of that. The lake operator gets £5. But with Swimscan, lake operators can set their own membership fee and Swimscan will only ever keep £7 – so if a venue’s membership fee is £20, like NOWCA currently is, the lake operator would keep £12.55 (stripe takes 45p).

If a lake operator decides to charge a £30 membership fee, Swimscan still only takes £7, so the operator will keep £22.55 per swimmer. With Swimscan, there is no limit. An operator could – in theory – charge a £50 annual membership fee, still just pay £7 to Swimscan and pocket the rest.