AUSSIE holidaymaker Rick Murphy has vowed to give Abergavenny a wide berth as a tourist destination after a brief visit which threw up a volley of verbal invective.

The plain-talking traveller from Down Under used some choice antipodean expressions to describe his less than wonderful sortie to the town.

He conceded that Abergavenny was a ‘nice place’ and had a lot going for it - but he was not so complimentary about the leisure centre and the castle.

Their final run-in was over a possible swim at the centre.

They carried out a ‘reccy’ to see if the venue was good enough for a dip.

Ranting Rick explained, “We wanted to see if the pool was of a standard for us to come back and swim a couple of kilometres later in the day.

“We were surprised to be told by the young man at reception that we couldn’t look at it, as there were children in it at the time and that it was council policy that when young’uns are in the pool, adults are not even allowed to look at the pool. It’s the council’s child protection policy.”

Reality check

Rick thundered, “That is just straight up, stupid paranoia.”

He added, “I said to the fellow, ‘What, do they think there is a paedophile behind every tree here do they?

“I said not to worry about it, that we will wait to swim where breeders and stupid councils have a grip on bloody reality.

“The irony of this is that we were up at the castle before going to the pool and witnessed a woman putting a young girl through the rigours of what experiencing a second world war air raid was like.

“My wife and I wondered if it was really necessary to put a young child through that sort of trauma - the poor little thing. If the reality hits home on what it was like, it could result in a terrifying nightmare that night.

Can’t people wait till their kids at least get a bit older before showing them atrocities like that?”

His put-down continued, “Of course my wife agreed that the woman was ridiculous. So what do we have here? Up at the castle your children can witness how people’s heads were cut off, have a barbaric mass slaughter inflicted by William somebody or other, a murderous reprisal, incidents of wrecking the joint by a couple of despotic jerks as in the Earl of Pembroke and some Charles or other explained to them, experience people being killed, maimed or at best made homeless by a senseless WW2, but they can’t be subjected to a couple of Aussies who want to see if there are lane ropes and backstroke flags etc. in your pool! Are you lot dream’n?”

Stupid problem

He desired to know, “What’s your stupid problem? Do your young ones swim naked or something? I bloody well hope not, as, if we were able to check out your pool, I would hope that the young ones would be appropriately attired, otherwise my wife and I would have been very offended.

“Glad you’re not in charge of Australian beaches. What would the demographic be at the beaches? There’d be millions not allowed to go surfing.

Abergavenny is a nice place, has a lot going for it, but we’ll enjoy our British holiday elsewhere, where common sense might prevail.”

Pool closed

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council, which runs both the leisure centre and the castle reacted angrily to the saying that the leisure centre prided itself on its warm welcome and accessibility for customers, adding that regular feedback indicated the high level of success staff achieve to make visits enjoyable.

Speaking to the Chronicle he said, “ Mr Murphy visited the leisure centre while a summer playscheme activity was underway and the pool was closed to the public.

“We hope that Mr Murphy understands that we take the safeguarding of children extremely seriously and when parents leave young people in our care, staff are fully responsible for their well-being.

“Our playschemes are registered with Care Standards Wales and safety of children in a closed environment is expected without question.

“Mr Murphy’s comments about the activities at the castle and museum are the first negative ones we have received.

“Children are encouraged to better understand history through adventure and learn through varied and interesting experiences. Monmouthshire’s museum service promotes a number of impressive projects in Abergavenny and its latest ‘Happy Museum’ exhibition demonstrates how these unite communities.

Head of Tourism, Leisure and Culture, Ian Saunders commented, “I’d urge Mr and Mrs Murphy to reconsider their decision and witness first-hand what Monmouthshire offers our many satisfied visitors.

“Our statistics state over 98 per cent of visitors would be happy to recommend Monmouthshire to others while 97 per cent would return. We would also be happy to welcome Mr and Mrs Murphy back to Abergavenny Leisure Centre with a tour of our facilities at times when these are open to the public.”