Private Health Clubs may be great for the young, muscle-building younger set but they don't seem to cater for a section of the population who desperately need them - the overweight, older person on a limited pension who cannot exercise on dry land.

OK - Let's assume that, having worked at one for over 18 years, I am fully aware that there ARE public pools which are open to everyone. However older, overweight people don't always want to 'strut their stuff' in front of a lot of people and lay themselves open to the kind of comments and ridicule that I have certainly been party to for the last 20 years at MY local pool, especially from children and younger adults.

Some clubs have pools that stand idle or are very underused much of the time and it appears that they prefer to leave them that way, rather than provide a cheaper, pool-only subscription for people in the older, poorer, more infirm group who need it to improve their health. WHY?.... and why, if they are so 'dedicated to improving health', do they price themselves out of the market for the average pensioner in this country? Even £35 a month is a hell of a lot to today's pensioner!

Is it elitism? Do they simply prefer to have gyms and pools full of the already (presumably well-off) young and beautiful, pumping iron and pounding the treadmills? Could it be that they really don't want troups of older, infirm people attending the club because it's not the image they want?

Just what ARE these private clubs doing to help the Government in its' drive to stem the tide of obesity in this country and its' cost to the NHS? I wanted to KNOW and I tried to find out by emailing five of these clubs in the Sutton Coldfield area - LA Fitness, Fairlawns, Bannatyne's, Moor Hall and the Sebastian Coe Health Club at the Ramada Hotel. I am STILL waiting for a helpful or meaningful answer from ANYONE.

I pointed out to the clubs that there were a lot of pensioners, like me, who were suffering from weight problems and who were unable to use a gym or take part in land based exercise because of serious arthritis or other health problems. I told them that we were NOT interested in using land-based exercises for that reason and really just needed a low-cost, swimming-only membership subscription.

Of the five clubs that I contacted NONE had replied after a week - so I sent out an email asking them to please reply.

ONLY TWO bothered to answer.

One sent a brochure PDF which informed me that an 'Off Peak' membership, which included ALL the facilities I DIDN'T wish to use as well as the pool, would cost me in the region of £450 a year! This is clearly both impossible for someone on a low pension (mine is just £31 a WEEK) and NOT APPLICABLE as it includes gym and other facilities I had clearly stated I did NOT NEED.

The second club replied "The club has been operating for 11 years with the same policy and is not in a position to change the membership criteria without it affecting the present clientele, the cost of administrating a pool only membership and implementing it due to the design and layout of the club would be a logistical nightmare, it would also mean having to consider other only memberships i.e. gym or class memberships".

Frankly that doesn't wash with me. The fact is that the problem doesn't mean enough to them to WANT to help even though they could, if they wanted to try. Nobody said it would be easy to set up but the fact is that these type of memberships are desperately NEEDED - that, however, doesn't seem important to them.

The same club then went on to say "As a matter of interest I am presently in discussion with a local health centre as to ways to build awareness of well being and exercise for people with health related issues, which once agreed we will promoting jointly and if successful I shall be contacting further health centres." What on EARTH does that mean - that they wanted to advertise their club in local health centres? I think our awareness of well being and exercise is being brought to the public eye quite enough without any more 'promotion', especially if these clubs are not prepared to help with a serious health problem such as obesity in the elderly pensioner when they CAN. I can tell them now - that if they DO work with Health Centres and promote their club there, they are going to get a LOT more requests the same as mine. Obesity is NOT a problem which just affects the RICH, nor is it a condition which will allow a lot of people to use their gyms or land-based exercise classes. In today's economic climate, they will need to radically re-think their attitudes and pricing structures if they really ARE dedicated to helping with this growing and serious problem.