Bulletin - sent out on 5th December 2002
POOL MEETING	Next public meeting of the Pool Users Group is on Thursday 12th of December at 7pm . This time we're meeting in the pub - the Old King John's Head which is in Whiston Road - for a Christmas drink. The Old King John's Head is on the other side of the road from the pool and nearer the Kingsland Road end. The minutes of the last meeting - which was really a long discussion - are attached.
COUNCIL DOES IMMEDIATE REPAIRS TO THE POOL BUILDING	The Council have started work on the pool. The Pool Trust has received a letter from Jules Pipe (the new mayor) saying that he is honouring his election commitment made at the Pool Users meeting in October and has sanctioned up to £35,000 to be spent on the building to carry out the immediate repairs. The gutters have been cleared and the windows boarded up and an assessment made of the rest of the work to be done - which should be carried out before Christmas.
AUDIT COMMISSION REPORT ON HACKNEY SPORTS PROVISION	The Audit Commission review of the provision of Sport and Leisure Services in Hackney is complete. In conclusion they assessed the Council as providing a ‘poor’ service - based on their observations and customer feedback. And that the service has ‘uncertain’ prospects for improvement - mainly due to poor communication and lack of staff in the Council. There are concerns about the design of the new Clissold pool. And a lot of recommendations around producing a sports strategy (to be adopted by October 2003) and how the Council can re-engage with local people in both the production of the strategy and an on-going assessment of the provision of services. There's not much mention of Haggerston . There is a link to the report (and an article by Ken Worpole) on Clissold Pool Users site - which is at www.clissoldleisure.com Read the whole report at :http://www.bestvalueinspections.gov.uk/reports/accessible.asp?ProdID=794C4790-FD66-11d6-B211-0060085F8572 . Unfortunately the Audit Commission are only publishing this report on their website. Their phone no is 0800 502030.
BUSINESS PLAN	Invitations to tender for writing a business plan for the pool - funded by Shoreditch New Deal (ShOW) - have gone out. More news soon.
MEETING SPORT ENGLAND	The London swimming pool campaigns (so far: Brockwell Lido, London Fields Lido, Swiss Cottage Pool (now demolished), Poplar Baths (closed for 20 years and apparently full of concrete), Marshall St Baths in Soho and Haggerston Pool) have all arranged to meet a representative of Sport England to talk about swimming provision in London and our campaigns.