With the coronavirus pandemic impacting both private and public purse, in the run up to Local Authorities setting budgets for the coming year, concerns about funding for, and the future of, many UK public swimming baths was high, with 230 sites thought to be at risk.

Smoking Gun was drafted in to create an awareness campaign about potential mass closures and the negative effect of this on children learning to swim, on behalf of Sports PR client Sporting House.

The aims were threefold — starting conversations with beleaguered local leisure services, councillors and school managers to making it clear there is another way to run swimming facilities and pressure authorities to guarantee pools will reopen post-pandemic.