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.
Well, my daughter has just had a baby girl this morning, so the next generation of Ipswich campaigners is underway!
ReplyDeleteHopefully this child will one day be actually able to swim in a restored, re-opened, heated 50 metre Broomhill Lido.
I attended the Executive Meeting of Ipswich Borough Council on December 15th 2009 where an All Options report on Broomhill Pool was being considered. (Item 6 on the printed agenda)
ReplyDeleteThere was virtually no discussion. Cllr Judy Terry briefly introduced the report and claimed that Ipswich had sufficient pool provision already. (The report says "the Sport England Facility Planning Model suggests that there is enough water space in Ipswich but quality needs to be improved". This 'sufficiency' is only achievable by including private pools as well as public ones. The provision of PUBLIC water space remains inadequate as detailed by the 2006 report produced by Torkildsen Barclay: Swimming Needs Assessment for Ipswich.
The Council is laying claim to adequate provision because they want to justify their decision to remove their previous offer of a million pounds towards restoration.
This was one of the recommendations at the meeting ie that the million pounds for Broomhill Pool was to be taken off the table.
As said above, there was no real discussion - members of the Executive nodded their heads very slightly and the million pounds was gone!
The other recommendation was to choose one of the options and Option 2 was voted through. This was the decision to try and transfer the lido to an alternative provider ie an outside operator.
Back in October (2009) the Council had placed an advertisement for Expressions of Interest in Broomhill Pool on the main commercial leisure operators. A number of companies responded and three are wanting to take matters further. The council has said that proposals must be in by February 2010.
Although it is good that outside operators are now being given the chance to take over the pool, I have to wonder why the Council has dithered for over seven years before pursuing this option. This could have been done whilst the pool was still open in 2002. The Council's tortoise-like slowness meant that the pool has been vandalized and damaged repeatedly and the fabric allowed to deteriorate quite needlessly.
Well it's Christmas Day - a day of new birth and Christian hope.
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas to all Broomhill Pool supporters - all those who have written letters, or articles (eg Private Eye), worked to safeguard the lido by getting it Listed as a Grade II Building, made films about it, included the lido in their book (Hurrah for "Liquid Assets"), attended the Open Heritage Days, supported the Broomhill Pool Trust in any way.
Special greetings to those who responded to the Expressions of Interest advertisement placed by Ipswich Borough Council - what will the New Year bring?