Newcastle Lib Dems decimate public access to the City Pool

Log onto the leisure section of Newcastle City Council and the City Pool is billed as a premier city centre facility:
http://www.newcastleleisure.co.uk/citypool 

However, over the last year or so, the council has been relentlessly attacking the integrity of these beautiful Baths by planning to close the learner pool and board it over for a performance space for their My Place project. There must be other possible sites in the city of Newcastle for the My Place scheme, but councillors have insisted on a) using a derelict site next to the pool and b)saying that the site isn't large enough! Their "solution" is to destroy the pool.

The Council's main answer to protests has been that Northumbria University will be opening a new pool and that groups like the City of Newcastle Amateur Swimming Club will be able to use this facility, but now a fresh row has ensued because the Club will not only be using this new facility (which opens on September 6th) but are set to monopolize the main pool five nights a week.  From September 6th the main pool in the City Pool complex will close at 4.30pm so that the Club can have sole access Monday-Friday.

The Council's reply at the moment is that ordinary swimmers can use the learner pool, but this is the one they want to destroy for the My Place project!!  If the learner pool is closed, then the City Pool will only be offering public swimming up to 4.30pm each day (Monday - Friday) which is extremely restrictive.

Are the Council trying to close the whole facility? It certainly seems so: by limiting public access they will be able to show there is less "demand" and that it is "uneconomic" to continue or some such nonsense.
As usual, the so-called consultation over the learner pool took place only after the My Place decision had already been taken and there has certainly been no public consultation over the greatly reduced availability of the main pool. That's democracy for you.

Brynaman Pool needs more than vague reassurances

The Deputy Leader of Carmarthenshire County Council has been pledging that the Council will do all they can to re-open Brynaman Pool next year. Unfortunately, these kind of vague reassurances have no value whatsoever without a detailed survey, a proper budget and an exact timetable for the repair work.

Estimates for repairing the pool are currently varying between £20,000 and £100,000 depending on what newspaper you read! For example in the South Wales Evening Post on August 4th 2010 the Council were claiming the upper figure was needed and also claiming (erroneously) that the film company had offered £20,000.

I have taken the trouble to double check with Chris Hill, the Location Manager for "Hunky Dory", and at no time did the film company offer the Council £20,000; and yet the council made this statement in the South Wales Evening Post last week: "When the (film) producers heard the pool would have cost £100,000 to repair and not the initial £20,000 they had offered, they backed off."

Furthermore the Council remain "at a loss" to explain why they didn't alert the Brynaman Swimming Pool Association sooner about the need for repairs. This phrase occurs in the article written in the South Wales Guardian. I believe I can help them out here: the reason why the Council cannot adequately explain the delay is because they planned it that way! They knew they were not going to open the pool and they also knew they couldn't afford to give BSPA too much notice, because otherwise there would have been time for a concerted protest: therefore presenting the people of Brynaman with a fait accompli was their chosen method of closure.

I doubt if they had prepared themselves for the publicity that has followed this unpleasant piece of council deviousness.


http://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/news/8311034.Council_boss_offers_Brynaman_pool_campaigners_some_hope/

Bereft in Brynaman - Article for the Outdoor Swimming Society

"BEREFT IN BRYNAMAN"

An article about the closure of the Brynaman Pool this summer (2010).

I wrote this article on 29th/30th July 2010 and sent it in to the Outdoor Swimming Society.
It is now available on the news section of the OSS

http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/index.php?p=news#234

Photo is courtesey of the Brynaman Swimming Pool Association

2010 General Election: Broomhill Pool

As the 2010 General Election comes sharply into focus, the future of the Grade II Listed Olympic-sized lido in Ipswich remains an ongoing issue for both the constituency of Ipswich and the Central Suffolk & North Ipswich one. Independent Candidates are likely to stand in both areas with Broomhill Pool as one of the main points of their electoral campaign.

The Conservative/Lib Dem Executive at Ipswich Borough Council were keen enough to criticise the Labour councillors for closing the pool in 2002, but after five years in power themselves have actually delivered nothing except a great deal of hot air and much dithering. Their much vaunted offer of a million pounds towards restoration (made just before the 2005 General Election) has been taken off the table, precisely at the moment when it might have been needed.

Councillor Judy Terry likes to point to the fact that they financed the Feasibility Study by voting through over £58,000 in August 2005, but this money was actually the £64,000 voted through by Labour for a Heritage Lottery bid in 2004 - the new Conservative administration simply allowed this money to be suspended in aspic whilst they did absolutely no work at all on a possible bid for Heritage Lottery funding. The Broomhill Pool Trust was therefore offered over £5,000 less for the Feasibility Study than the Council had awarded themselves.

Under the Conservative/Lib Dem alliance this heritage pool has simply suffered ongoing neglect and repeated vandalism whilst all the positive work has been done by the Broomhill Pool Trust and other campaigners.

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.

Option B1: "Mothball" Broomhill Pool until unitary authority established

This option was voted through by the Executive Committee of Ipswich Borough Council on 16th December 2008:-

Option B1 "Mothball" until unitary authority established.

Drain pool and clear of debris £3,000
Granular fill or similar to base to ensure ground pressure £20,000
Fill with sand or similar material £55,000
Dismantle and secure diving boards £1,000
Remove loose timber and items from view £1,000
Block up apertures to prevent access £10,000
Professional fees £13, 500
Contingency £9,000


My comment: as stressed in the first post, Listed Building Consent has not yet been obtained for these major changes to a Grade II Listed Building.

End of the line for Broomhill Pool?

On 16th December 2008 the Executive Committee of Ipswich Borough Council met to discuss a report entitled the Pools Development Options report.



This report looked at the options available for the "short to medium term future" of the swimming pools owned by Ipswich Borough Council including Crown Pools, Fore St Baths and Broomhill Pool.



For the Crown Pools complex and for Fore St Baths there is council support, but the option voted through for the Broomhill Lido was dire indeed and is likely to spell the end of any hopes for restoration of this Olympic-sized pool.



Broomhill Pool was opened originally in 1938 and for over 60 years was one of the highlights of the summer season in Ipswich. However, in the autumn of 2002 the gates closed and in February 2003 the local Evening Star made headlines with their Broomhill is Doomhill announcement.



A continuous campaign has been fought to try and save this Grade II Listed pool and a bid for Heritage Lottery Funding was submitted in March 2008 by the Broomhill Pool Trust, with high hopes that it would be successful as it was backed, apparently, by the offer of £1 million from the Council.



In September 2008 the bid was rejected, with the HLF spokesman saying that they needed to see more commitment from Ipswich Borough Council: the £1 million had been promised, but not secured, they said.



The Council's response to the request for more "commitment" was given in this Pools Option report discussed on 16th December and shows that they simply intend to fill the lido in with "granular infill or similar" and "sand or similar". Altogether an estimated £113,000 will be spent on draining the pool, dismantling the diving boards and filling the pool in with £55,000 worth of sand and £20,000 of the granular infill and once this is done, any chances of restoration will be very greatly reduced.



This Pools Development Options was prepared after consultation with the Chief Executive, the Portfolio Holder for Arts, Culture and Leisure, the Head of Finance etc. BUT....... there was no consultation with English Heritage or the Twentieth Century Society or the Council's own Conservation experts.



At the Committee meeting itself, verbal reassurances were given that there would be consultation with heritage organisations after the vote had been taken; but there were no amendments to Option B1 for Broomhill Pool and no written confirmation of such consultation.

The Council are aware that i) Listed Building Consent should be obtained and ii) that failure to obtain such consent can lead to prosecution. But no guarantees were given that Listed Building Consent would actually be obtained before tons of sand and granular infill were poured into our lido.

This Grade II Listed 1938 lido is therefore very much at risk. The Council's decision to prepare a report on making major changes to a Listed property without heritage consultation is a very serious one indeed; I can only infer from this, that they did not believe English Heritage would give consent for these particular measures.