PHONE lines went haywire as hundreds of parents battled it out for places in children's swimming classes yesterday.

They bombarded the Littledown Centre with calls and queued at the centre from 7am to ensure their children have places for next term.

Some had taken the day off work, others had dragged little ones out of bed at the crack of dawn to be there and there was also an army of grandparents who had been mobilised for the occasion.

Staff at the centre were at the ready to take bookings in person and on the phone from 8am. They were handing out raffle numbers to people as they turned up to ensure no one jumped the queue.

A spokesman for the centre said intermittent problems were experienced with the phone system due to the high volume of calls and said they hope to address the problem before the next round of lessons can be booked.

He said take-up levels for children's swimming and other sports are higher than the national average in Bournemouth.

The centre operates a priority system with children staying on the same course as priority one, those moving to a different level as priority two and new members priority three.

Yesterday was the turn of priority two customers who snapped up places within minutes.