Parents, children and pensioners have been saved from hours of queuing around their local leisure centres following the success of an online swim school system in south Norfolk.

Parents, children and pensioners have been saved from hours of queuing around their local leisure centres following the success of an online swim school system in south Norfolk.

Families had been forced to wait for more than three hours outside pools in Diss and Wymondham as a result of the popularity of swimming classes.

But a new online initiative has meant that 80pc of swim school bookings were made on South Norfolk Council's website during the spring term.

Michelle Monck, the cabinet member for tourism, heritage, enterprise, culture and customer focus, said the system had saved countless hours of staff and customers' time.

'We aim to provide the best levels of customer service possible and in this day and age most people expect to be able to access services online, in person or by the phone. So we decided to bring Swim School bookings online and improve the experience for our customers.'

'This is another area where South Norfolk is leading the way, as far as we are aware no other council in the country offers this service online,' she said.

For more information, visit www.south-norfolk.gov.uk/swimschool