Faced with the price of energy, around thirty public swimming pools are closing Monday, September 5 Around thirty public swimming pools – in Limoges, Granville or even Versailles – closed their doors on Monday, because the operating company Vert Marine can no longer cope with the rising energy prices, the company said in a statement. About 10% of the 4,000 public swimming pools in France are managed via a public service delegation and not directly by the community where they are located. Often heated by gas, swimming pools are very energy-intensive equipment and bear the full brunt of rising prices. The Vert Marine company had to close “for a temporary period” a third of its establishments and placed “staff on partial unemployment”, she specified. The energy bill of this public service delegate has increased from “15 to 100 million euros”, or “the entire annual turnover of the company”. The company, in discussions with the communities since June, could not find a solution at this stage, she added, affirming not wanting to proceed to a multiplication of the tariffs by three. It thus appeals “to local and governmental authorities in order to take the necessary and unprecedented decisions to return to bearable energy costs and to allow public service obligations to be assumed, and in the first place learning to swim in particular in schools”, explains this company which has 2,000 employees. Of the 90 swimming pools and ice rinks it manages, some delegation contracts do not include the cost of energy.