Broomhill Pool set to lose its million pounds?

On 15th December 2009 the Executive of Ipswich Borough Council will meet and one of the items on the agenda is Broomhill Pool. The Council will consider an all options report on this 1938 lido, but one of the main recommendations is that the offer of a million pounds towards its restoration should be withdrawn. One of their justifications is that there is already sufficient 'water space' provision in Ipswich.

A survey by Torkildsen Barclay in 2006 established that there was in fact under provision of public swimming pools in Ipswich. This situation was going to worsen as Ipswich grew and expanded. The council were happy to accept that report at the time, because they were wanting to try and acquire a new indoor 50 metre pool for the town. The Torkildsen Barclay report considered only the public pools in Ipswich: Fore St Baths and Crown Pools (Broomhill Pool was excluded from any consideration because it is an open air pool and therefore "weather dependent" as consultants like to say.)

This autumn a new cultural and leisure survey was conducted by PMP Genesis, but it took place very quietly; it wasn't mentioned in the Council's monthly magazine The Angle, it wasn't promoted in the local newspapers. This survey established (apparently) that amazingly there was now sufficient water space in Ipswich! This was achieved by including all the available private provision (eg the indoor pool at David Lloyd's health club) AND the public pools.
The Council can now justify their recommendation to strip Broomhill Pool of the million pounds restoration money previously pledged.

The above situation is a very good example of how surveys and statistics can be used to come to any conclusion that a council desires! When they want to build a pool, then Ipswich is suffering from under provision of water space; when they want to damage the chances of an Olympic-sized Grade II Listed swimming pool ever being restored, then hey presto a £21,000 survey can magically show that the town now has an over provision of swimming pools.

As the old saying goes: " There are lies, damned lies and then there are reports on Broomhill Pool."

Success for Woodgreen Pool in Banbury

Campaigners for the Woodgreen Pool in Banbury will have the pleasure of seeing their efforts come to fruition on Thursday 30th July when this lido re-opens.

The Woodgreen Pool closed in 2002 (the same year that Broomhill Pool closed); supporters of the Banbury Pool fought hard for many years to convince Cherwell District Council that re-opening Woodgreen would benefit the area and finally in 2007 the Council's attitude veered round to this point of view.

Prince's Regeneration Trust meet today - Broomhill on the agenda?

The Prince's Regeneration Trust meet today (February 11th 2009) and hopefully Broomhill Pool will be on the agenda. The Trust has declared its support for Cleveland Pools, the only Georgian Lido in Britain and it would be a wonderful step if Broomhill Lido could also secure their interest.

Updates as available.

Will 2009 see victory for Broomhill Pool campaign?

This is the seventh year of a campaign to save Broomhill Pool in Ipswich and certainly the most urgent.

Ipswich Borough Council are the owners of this Grade II Listed lido and, until recently, have been content to leave the site simply derelict, since its closure in the autumn of 2002.

In the second week of December 2008, however, reports appeared in the local newspapers stating that the Council were planning major investment in their swimming facilities. This "investment" included the revamp of some very old news that nearly £4 million would be spent on the Crown Pools complex: this money had in fact been voted through early in 2005 and was originally part of a detailed and rolling programme of improvement to spend £1million a year on Crown Pools. Most of this money was never actually spent because IBC wanted to explore the option of building a completely new 50 metre Olympic pool. That plan has now been shelved and the £4 million will now be resurrected to improve the complex.

Fore St Baths in Ipswich will receive £300,000 for refurbishment - a reprieve for this pool, as it was earmarked for closure if the new 50 metre pool idea had been actioned.

The "good news" about refurbishments for Crown Pools and Fore St Baths was very cleverly used to deflect attention from the "health and safety" measures outlined for Broomhill Pool. These consisted of draining the pool, removing the diving boards and replacing the water with some innate material like foam. Indeed , this promotion of a "massive makeover" for the swimming pools of Ipswich was done so effectively that even the BBC website has reported that IBC have "pledged to spend over £100,000 on repairs" at the Broomhill Lido.

It takes a far closer inspection of the Pools Devpt Options report to realise that the Council are intending to dump £55,000 worth of sand and £20,000 worth of granular infill in the pool and that Listed Building Consent has not been sought for this.

The English Heritage website offers advice on all aspects of managing Listed Buildings

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.19378 so there is no excuse for the Council's failure to consult them.

Without a doubt, the move to fill the pool in (voted through on 16th December 2008) represents by far the greatest threat to restoration hopes during this long-fought campaign.

The Sunday Telegraph spoke of Prince Charles' wish to save Britain's heritage during the credit crunch, through the work of the Prince's Regeneration Trust, so I have e-mailed the Trust in the hope that they may be able to support efforts to save the Ipswich Lido.