KAL - Batley Sports & Tennis Centre

Do not take your child to the 0-2 swimming lessons here if they’re anywhere near the lower end of that age bracket. We took our three month old twins, hoping to give them some confidence in the water and to ease our own anxieties around our children and water safety. The only water they’d ever been in before was the bath, so this was their very first experience - the instructor didn’t do any safety procedures with us beforehand, and simply told us to get in. Everyone else had been a couple of times before so they all got in while we hovered to the side and asked how we were supposed to safely climb into the pool each holding a 3 month old baby. We were basically just told “use the steps”, nothing to do with how to safely hold them in the water or navigate it once we were in. The class then began with activities such as holding onto the side, pushing off from the side and throwing foam discs… again, our children are 3 months old (3 months older than the advertised minimum age of “0” for this class), they can barely hold their heads up, never mind do any of those things. With no safety instructions while in the water, I fell while holding my child and couldn’t regain my balance - the instructor simply stopped and watched as I tried to get to the steps to keep my child above water, the whole time with no idea whether he’d gone under or not, while the lifeguard made absolutely no attempt to move. I came away with a large bruise on my knee and major anxiety about the idea of almost having drowned my child and no one coming to help. Additionally, the water was freezing, and when someone brought this up because their baby was shivering, they were met with “oh yeah it’s colder than usual today for some reason” and that was that. I don’t know the exact temperature, but I do know it was wildly unsafe for babies. We made complaints to three managerial staff, all of whom were excellent, however because the instructor and lifeguard gave a statement filled with identical lies (they said there had been safety instructions at the beginning of the class and maybe we’d been late and missed them - we were one of the first there and in the queue waiting, so that absolutely did not happen, that we’d been shown safe holds for our twins - we hadn’t until after I fell and we had to ask, and that the lifeguard got up to help when the incident happened - absolutely none of this was true), there was nothing they could do about it, we couldn’t get a refund and there were no repercussions for the instructor or lifeguard who endangered our babies other than there’d be some random observations taking place now and then. We were not refunded despite only attending the one class, so essentially paid £60 for the privilege of a bruise, almost drowning our child and mountains of anxiety where the water is concerned now. Diabolical all around. Thank you, however, to the manager who sympathised with me, and the one who agreed with us that the lessons are not appropriate for such young children, and recommended a better swim school to us.

One of the worst places to go. We went there to have a good time with our 5 and 6 years old child ended up with poor customer service and no guidelines at all. The receptionist wasted 2 hours of our time and then booked the wrong place.be carefull when u go there its not clean and dirty water they don't clean it properly so u will end up with bugs 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤢👻🧞‍♂️🧞‍♂️🧞‍♂️

Leaving my review here as it's where my kid had his swimming lessons up until the cancellation debacle. The place itself is fine from what we experienced, but KAL's utter incompetence, blame-shifting, and refusal to take any sort of accountability for their own internal procedures is just too great to overlook, and looking at the reviews from here and Spen Valley, it's an alarmingly frequent occurrence. I've been a customer on-and-off for the better part of 20 years from when I was a teen, but this has ensured they won't see another penny from me. EDIT to respond: the contact centre are the ones that exacerbated the issues, they know full well about them and any "information gathering" would be pointless. I've only left this here as a warning to others, rather than to seek any sort of resolution.

I had an active membership and had already given proper notice to cancel by email, in line with their own terms. Despite this, when I attended the Batley branch, I was refused access to the gym purely because I had cancelled my direct debit, even though I had already paid for the month and my membership was still active during the notice period. The front desk staff were rude, dismissive, and unwilling to listen. I calmly explained that I had already sent a cancellation email and paid in advance, but instead of checking properly or handling the situation professionally, I was spoken to aggressively and turned away. Denying access to a paying member is unacceptable. Cancelling a direct debit does not magically erase the fact that payment has already been made, and refusing service that has been paid for is wrong. Customer service have since tried to shift blame by claiming they “cannot find” my cancellation email, despite clear proof it was sent. This shows poor internal processes and a lack of accountability. Overall, very disappointing experience. Poor staff attitude, poor communication, and unfair treatment of members. I would not recommend this gym based on how they handle cancellations and customer disputes.

Our experience in the 0–2 swimming class was genuinely unsafe and completely unsuitable for younger babies. My wife has already shared a detailed account, but I want to add my perspective as I was there holding our other twin when she fell while carrying our baby. At no point did we receive clear guidance on how to enter the water safely, despite being visibly nervous first-time parents. The only “advice” we received was that the water might be cool. When my wife fell, the lifeguard did not leave their seat, and the instructor only offered safety guidance after the incident—something that should have been provided from the start. Fellow parents actually gave us more support than the staff. My wife was shaken and unable to continue the lesson, and I tried to salvage the experience for both our sons alone. What has made this even worse is the handling of our complaint. I lodged it myself, explained the physical and emotional impact on my wife—who already struggles with postnatal anxiety—and made clear how unsafe the class felt. Yet I was told I could not schedule a call and had to simply wait for unscheduled calls I often missed due to my work hours. The follow-up was disorganised, stressful, and in the end I was completely excluded, while my wife received random calls that were not welfare checks but attempts to resolve my complaint without me. Weeks later, we were informed that no refund would be issued and that the class would not be reviewed because staff had given an inaccurate account of events—essentially contradicting what we experienced firsthand. This was devastating for my wife, who left the pool in pain and shock and then had to hear that her experience was being dismissed. To make matters worse, the response to her review publicly implied she was lying. After everything she went through—physically, mentally, and while caring for 3-month-old twins—this was deeply upsetting and entirely unacceptable. We hope no other new parents have to experience what we did. Safety and honesty should come before reputation.