the_hermit

It failed. He just kept throwing his own keys in the bowl and pretending to be surprised when he had to drive himself home.

Maybe there could be a cancellation quota to prevent the behaviour NewWave describes.

I would support bringing back some sort of sanction for not turning up (if it's not still in force). But I think a sanction that reduces your ability to book in advance (say you go from 7 to 3 days advance) rather than a fine would be more effective and easier on the staff who work there. It would also be more effective for rich people who might not care about paying the fines. Or you could just fine say the top 5 worst offenders in a month, which would probably take out those who had a genuine one-off emergency so couldn't turn up.

Yes it's leisure financed by people's gym subscriptions and taxpayers. It's not magicked out of thin air. So it's important that the resource is allocated efficiently. . It's also not leisure for the people working there for whom it's presumably a pain to deal with an overcrowded pool.

Having turn up and swim isn't efficient. Either they're too packed and everyone loses, or there are vacancies which people aren't aware of because there's no booking system.

They used to fine people for not turning up, but I think the reception staff were overwhelmed by mistakes/people trying to appeal their fine. I think instead they should just temporarily reduce the booking window for people who don't turn up as a deterrent.

When the 7am one finishes there's no queue of people for e.g. classes waiting for the next session.

In the evening?

You could book the wrong lane with no repercussions but hopefully etiquette prevents this. If I turned up and there were >10 people in the fast or medium lanes I think it would be sufficiently unpleasant to have rather not turned up in the first place.

The young ones can bite car tyres around this time of year - I assume they do it for the thrill of the hiss or something like that. We had a spate of damaged tyres and thought it was a disturbed person or at a stretch an environmental protestor taking it too far, but caught a fox on a house camera.

Do Family Stores on Upland Road take pre-printed Royal Mail parcel dropoffs? IIRC last time I went there someone told me the Royal Mail website was wrong and needed to be updated (admittedly a long time ago) so I have since always gone to AM Supermarket on Overhill Road. I once went to ED Post Office and never again!

https://www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/at-gails-what-is-the-human-cost-behind?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=9mgg&triedRedirect=true It's sad that Gails appears to be the only bakery that opens early (i.e when I want breakfast!)

Can I use the credit for swimming lessons when the pool reopens? Or is this a case of the leisure centre taking money for services they will never deliver?

If the other side and/or you use a cheap conveyancer who doesn't understand any actual law, you will often end up being told to buy various unnecessary legal indemnity policies (because the conveyancer is too scared to offer an opinion) which will end up costing you more.

There are multiple bell bollards along turnings on Grove Hill Road. When I lived up there collisions with them were a regular occurrence (like once every month or two) often turning the cars upside down. In every case the drivers were being complete idiots and their carelessness clearly a danger to small children and so on.