APRIL showers certainly come our way -- and not only in the form of torrential rain, but in a cascade of rises in the cost of living.

It's the month when everything goes up, council tax, water rates, rents, TV licence, leisure centre fees, parking costs, petrol etc etc.

I'm sick of it -- and I'm not the only one.

I'd no sooner put pen to paper on this topic than I received complaints from more disgruntled folk, and I can't blame them.

Pensioner Andrew Barker has had a weekly swim at Howe Bridge since he retired nine years ago, but when he arrived at the centre this week and rendered his 65p, he was told the charge had risen to £1 -- a 54 pc increase.

He says bus fares are up 3p which is reasonable and council tax by 8.9pc, but the rise in the cost of swimming is daylight robbery. It's true.

His first dip as a pensioner was free, but charges were introduced and have gone up every year until this massive rise. He points out that pensioners can still swim free at Urmston.

Well Mr Barker, the council tell me the swimming charges haven't increased for a long time, and have at last been brought into line with other discounted leisure charges. A spokesman said: "We don't think that a charge of £1 for unlimited swimming is excessive and it's cheaper than most authorities."

All I can say is it's dear if you can't afford it.

I also had a whinge from Hindley leisure centre users about the price increase, but they were more disgusted by the reduction in the size of paper cups in the iced water machine.

The normal cups have been discarded "because there was a lot of waste" and replaced with pathetic little cones that hold only one gobful of the refreshing liquid.

They're so tiny the ex-miners joke that those suffering from white finger can't pick them up!

Perhaps the solution to that is take your own cup.

Life doesn't get any easier does it?