A group of mums have claimed they are being “ripped off” by a contractor running swimming lessons in Lewisham after cancellations and refused refunds.

Ceinwen Giles leaves work early to take her nine-year-old daughter to her swimming lesson every Friday – but often she arrives at Glass Mill Leisure Centre to find the class has been cancelled without warning.

“My daughter has been going to swimming lessons there for years now and to be honest, it’s never been the best place, but over the last six months there has been a massive increase in cancelled lessons,” Ms Giles told News Shopper.

Her frustration grew in April when Fusion Lifestyle, the company that runs swimming lessons, changed their refund policy.

“Initially, if a lesson was cancelled, they did provide a refund if you filled out a form but they changed the policy without telling anybody.

“Now there are no refunds – but they offer catch-up lessons instead. In our view, this is not an appropriate response,” the 44-year-old said.

"It's just not on. They're ripping us off."

For working parents like Ms Giles, who runs a cancer charity, rescheduled lessons are inconvenient and would mean taking more time off work.

Ms Giles joined together with fellow mums Kenisha McGregor and Lisa Uquhart to start a petition to improve the service, which now has more than 200 signatures.

The petition calls on Fusion to reverse its no-refund policy and review its service to hire new swimming coaches.

Other demands include freezing recruitment of new children to the swim school until the cancellation issues have been resolved.

The petition reads: “The standards of service at Glass Mill are extremely poor, and are falling.”

It has also accused Fusion of breaching the Consumer Rights Act with its no-refund policy.

Ms Giles decided to start the petition after she saw posters encouraging people to register for swimming lessons in Glass Mill.

“It was the last straw,” she said.

As well as the petition, Ms Giles has also complained to Fusion head office and claims she has not received a response.

News Shopper has contacted Fusion Lifestyle for a response to the petition.