A swimming club which has helped the disabled for 27 years is to close.

Increasing costs and a lack of both volunteers and enthusiasm among members were the reasons cited by organiser Andrew Barrett for the closure.

He said many of Abingdon Disabled Swimming Club's 28 members hardly swam at all - and very few were seriously disabled anyway.

Mr Barrett, 50, of Poplar Grove, Kennington, said he was sorry to see the club close but added it was

The formal winding-up will take place next week.

The club regularly used the Kingfisher Pool in Abingdon during term times.

Mr Barrett, a toolroom supervisor at Lucy's iron foundry in Oxford, has run the club for 14 years and met his wife, Frances, there.

He said: "We had a good first ten years when there was a lot of help, but that has dwindled.

"Coupled with that, soaring insurance costs and other financial problems, we were not breaking even.

"Many people have managed only two or three swims out of the 13 there could be in a term.

"It is very disheartening but it is no use flogging a dead horse."

Mr Barrett, who had polio when he was 18 months old, is a qualified swimming and life-saving instructor and has helped hundreds of able-bodied and disabled people over the years.