A BAN on goggles in school swimming lessons is still in place as parents said the row should have been avoided.

The Oxford Mail last week reported how Oxfordshire County Council had banned children from wearing goggles in school lessons because of health and safety.

Council leader Keith Mitchell expressed his surprise at the ruling and assured people that schools would be consulted to solve the problem.

But last night, a county council spokesman said the ban was still in place.

Paige Sinclair, 15, who is wheelchair-bound after suffering meningitis as a baby, learned to swim wearing goggles.

Paige, a pupil at Marlborough School in Woodstock, said: “They shouldn’t ban goggles, I couldn’t have swum without them.”

Her mum Donna Sinclair said said: “Paige needed the goggles when she was swimming with school, there is no way she could have done without them.”

The Swimming Teachers’ Association (STA) said: “It is considered that part of the learning to swim experience is for a child to be able to deal with splashing in the face and the ability to open his/her eyes while the face is immersed and swim under water with confidence.”