Ipswich Community Radio (ICR) interviews General Election candidates

Ipswich Community Radio (ICR) has been offering all the General Election candidates a chance of an interview on their Breakfast shows and a chance to take part in a programme called "Charlie's Hat" (the Ipswich edition of Desert Island Discs!)

The Listen Again feature will have the Charlie's Hat programme for all the participating candidates until May 6th

http://www.icrfm.co.uk/

UCS Election Special for Ipswich Parliamentary Candidates

On May 4th the UCS Students Union are hosting an election hustings for students and staff at UCS:

http://www.ucsunion.com/node/390

All candidates were invited as far as I know and confirmed attendees so far include:

• Mark Dyson (Liberal Democrat)
• Chris Streatfield (UKIP)
• Chris Mole (Labour)
• Ben Gummer (Conservative)
• Tim Glover (Green Party)
• Sally Wainman (Independent)
  

Venue:- Waterfront Building Ipswich

Time: 1pm

River and Lake Swimming Association (RALSA) support Broomhill campaign

RALSA - RIVER AND LAKE SWIMMING ASSOCIATION -
BACKS THE BROOMHILL POOL CAMPAIGN

RALSA are showing their support for the Broomhill Pool campaign by headlining my parliamentary candidature at the top of the Home Page. Many thanks to Yacov Lev for flagging this up:

http://www.river-swimming.co.uk/

Outdoor Swimming Society show their support for Broomhill Pool

The Outdoor Swimming Society have posted an article about Broomhill Pool on their website, in support of the campaign generally and in favour of my candidature in the forthcoming General Election:

See their news section:

http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/index.php?p=news

Jonathan Knott was the interviewer.

GENERAL LEAFLET - BROOMHILL POOL (4th page)

WHY SAVE BROOMHILL POOL?

5. This is a unique and historic pool - part of Suffolk's heritage - and it would definitely be a tourist attraction. It might also help Ipswich gain its longed-for City status.

6. Broomhill Pool would be of interest to a wide variety of sporting disciplines including triathletes, sub-aqua divers, water polo players and canoeists. There is no 50 metre pool in Suffolk at the moment and this pool would provide endurance and stamina training for anyone interested in length training.

7. Major housing expansion is planned in East Anglia and we need the supporting infrastructure to go with these developments: the provision of sport and leisure centres should be part of this. It is an utter waste to leave Broomhill Pool derelict and neglected.

VOTE ON MAY 6TH
FOR FULL RESTORATION OF THE LIDO

VOTE FOR
SALLY WAINMAN
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE FOR IPSWICH

GENERAL LEAFLET - BROOMHILL POOL (4th page)

WHY SAVE BROOMHILL POOL?

1. When Broomhill Pool opened in April 1938, the Mayor of Ipswich spoke about the joy of swimming; it is this joy that should be returned to the people of Ipswich, because there is nothing like the feeling of swimming in the open air, surrounded by the trees there and accelerating up the 55 yard length of that lido.

2. Concerns about obesity, heart failure, diabetes etc: There is national concern about obesity at the moment and organisations like Diabetes UK are publishing staggering figures about the overall cost of obesity and inactive lifestyles. Economically it makes far more sense to invest in prevention ie. proper funding for sports and leisure facilities. Therefore an initial (and one-off) outlay of one or two million pounds on Broomhill would be an absolute bargain in return for the expertise and dedication of a top quality pool operator.

3. Lidos have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years and successful restorations/refurbishments have taken place at a number of locations including the London Fields Lido in Hackney, the Brockwell Park Lido in Herne Hill and the Uxbridge Lido (owned by Hillingdon Council).

4. A restored Broomhill Pool would be an added attraction for university students who are only a ten minute cycle ride away from the lido!

GENERAL ELECTION - BROOMHILL POOL (3rd page continued)

THE CURRENT SITUATION

In the autumn of 2009 the Council advertised the Broomhill Pool site on commercial leisure websites asking for "Expressions of Interest". At least three or four organisations expressed such an interest and February 10th 2010 was given originally as the date by which bids had to submitted.

One of the potential operators is a large, well run, not-for-profit leisure trust with substantial experience in open air pools; once the pool was leased to such an operator the pool would be off the council's hands and council taxpayers would not be picking up future bills for the pool's restoration.

The Catch 22 in the situation is that the Council is unwilling to keep its former pledge of the million pounds and is expecting the operator to bear the full brunt of the Council's decision to let the pool deteriorate over the last eight years. To me this seems wholly unrealistic and very unreasonable. Ipswich is now in a position to obtain a restored 50 metre swimming pool for a minimal outlay of one or two million pounds, with all future risks borne by the operator, so this is just too good an opportunity to pass by.

VOTE ON MAY 6TH 2010
VOTE FOR FULL RESTORATION OF THE BROOMHILL LIDO

GENERAL LEAFLET - BROOMHILL POOL (3rd page)

BROOMHILL POOL - A POOL FOR THE PEOPLE

I am standing in the General Election again because this Grade II Listed, Olympic-sized pool is a really valuable community resource and asset; it is beautiful architecturally and was designed to be a pool for all the people of Ipswich and not just for those in the higher income brackets. The Council claim there is already sufficient pool provision by using something called the Facility Planning Model created by Sport England; but this Model merges private, public and school swimming pools. For instance it allows the Council to count the indoor pool at the David Lloyd Health Club as part of the town's provision, even though the Council know full well that a monthly subscription there is beyond the reach of many residents.

The continued closure of the lido is not about lack of money or so-called "financial pressures". When the Council want to fund their own preferred heritage projects then these "pressures" don't seem to apply: eg they are pursuing a FOUR MILLION POUND project on Holywells Park, voting through £2 million in March 2008 alone to demonstrate "commitment" to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

By contrast, the Council's obvious lack of commitment to the lido's HLF bid (submitted by the Broomhill Pool Trust) drew stinging comments from Richard Powell, Regional Chairman of the HLF when he spoke on BBC Look East on 12th September: Ipswich Borough Council had promised a million pounds towards the lido's restoration, he said, but when the HLF looked at the bid that sum was not secured.

The HLF's fears were proved to be fully justified when Ipswich Borough Council neatly removed the million pound offer in December 2009 just at the point where it would have been most useful!

GENERAL ELECTION LEAFLET - BROOMHILL POOL (Page 2 continued)

ABOUT THE POOL:
Broomhill Pool is situated on the north-west side of Ipswich, with the entrance looking out onto Sherrington Road. It opened in 1938 and closed in the autumn of 2002 and was therefore an intrinsic part of Ipswich for well over 60 years. There was no warning or consultation about its impending closure and residents were horrified when the Evening Star made headlines in February 2003 asking if Broomhill was now "Doomhill".

The Broomhill Lido is an Art Deco, Grade II Listed building, part of Suffolk's heritage and a potential tourist attraction. The main pool is 55 yards long and 20 yards wide and therefore it can be described as roughly "Olympic" in size.

(Photo by Paul Beaumont, showing Broomhill Pool at its finest, before it was closed in 2002)

It was featured as one of the case studies in Janet Smith's book "Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain" (English Heritage 2005)

Ipswich Borough Council are the owners of this heritage pool and it has been their choice, and their choice alone, to leave it disgracefully neglected and needlessly derelict for the last eight years.

VOTE ON MAY 6TH TO SEE FULL RESTORATION OF THE LIDO

VOTE FOR SALLY WAINMAN
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

GENERAL ELECTION LEAFLET - BROOMHILL POOL (2nd page)

ABOUT THE CANDIDATE


Our family moved from London to Ipswich in June 1989 and I worked as a staff nurse in the Recovery Department of Ipswich Hospital until July 2009.

"Retirement" has proved extremely busy, with part-time agency nursing work, ministry duties at All Saints Kesgrave and several grandchildren now to keep in touch with.

My route into politics has been very much through a life-long love of swimming: I started campaigning for Broomhill Pool right back in 2002, never dreaming that the battle would still be going on eight years later! This will be my seventh election in total and the second General Election I have stood in.

I also research swimming pool closures and campaigns all over Britain and have frequently witnessed the fact that both central and local government are far more likely to fund "spin" rather than "swim" ie.plenty of fine words about the importance of sport and exercise, but a great reluctance to fund sports and leisure centres properly. The Government's much vaunted "Free Swimming" initiative, for example, has done absolutely nothing to slow down the rate of pool closures and cutbacks nationally.

General Election Leaflet - Broomhill Pool (front page)

GENERAL ELECTION

IPSWICH

THURSDAY MAY 6TH 2010

PLEASE VOTE TO KEEP THE POOL AS A POOL

DON'T LET THE POOL SITE BE SOLD OR LEASED OFF

JUST AS A GENERAL RECREATIONAL FACILITY

VOTE FOR FULL RESTORATION OF THE LIDO

SALLY WAINMAN

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE IPSWICH