Pool admission

Press, 18 March 1987, Page 20

Pool admission

Sir,—At the week-end my son went to Queen Elizabeth II Pool, only to find that he was questioned about his age. He produced his school I.D. but, no, that was not good enough. The fact that it contained his photo did not count. Out came his birth certificate but, no, that was not satisfactory either. He was let in for 60c because he told her as strongly as he could that he was not paying adult prices. Perhaps that is the criteria: “Yell at me.” If not, perhaps they could let us know because we are quickly running out of ideas.—Yours, etc. M. BROWN. March 1, 1987. [The Christchurch City Council general manager, Mr J. H. Gray, replies: “None of the cashiers on duty over the week-end in question can recall any problems as described in this letter. The standard practice is to accept I.D. cards as verification that the person concerned is still at school. A birth certificate does not necessarily prove that a person is still attending school and this document would not take precedence over an I.D. card. Problems do at times arise because of inadequate identification by school pupils and regrettably there are occasions when other than bona fide school pupils give false information in order to obtain the cheaper pool admission rate. Unless a school I.D. is out of date, the pool ticket-box staff will unquestionably accept this identification and charge the child admission rate. The manager is therefore at a loss to explain the present complaint, but would welcome discussion with the complainant in order to satisfactorily answer their concern.”]