A PILOT scheme in Stockton to encourage more people to take up swimming as a hobby is proving a success.

Stockton Borough Council's leisure facilities have been working in partnership with the North-East Regional Smart Card Consortium and Tilery Primary School, in Stockton, to encourage adults and children to make greater use of the swimming pool in the Splash centre, in Church Road, Stockton, with a smart card.

The cards are pre-credited with points that can be redeemed for swimming sessions thanks to funding from the council's healthy lifestyle programme.

Cards for the scheme have been offered to each child at the school, as well as their families, and the school will be able to award points for good attendance, behaviour and work, which can also be redeemed at the centre.

The pilot will run until the end of March, when it will be assessed, with the possibility of making it borough-wide.

David Seller, facilities manager at the council, said: "The scheme has been running since July and, so far, has proved a great success, with more than 3,000 visits being made to the pool, and 97 per cent of the cards issued have been used."