Haggerston Pool Newsletter November 6th 2004

HAGGERSTON POOL CAMPAIGN MEETING 
The next meeting of the Haggerston Pool Campaign will be on Wednesday 10th November at 6pm at the doctors surgery (Queensbridge Practice) at 24 Holly St, E8.  Everyone welcome.
 
 
LONDON FIELDS LIDO - PLANS TO RE-OPEN SUMMER 2006
Hackney Council has announced plans to re-open London Fields lido for the summer of 2006.  They have put aside £2 million for the restoration work and £200,000 a year to run the lido as an outdoor heated pool opening from April to September each year.  There is to be a stakeholders consultation in November followed by a larger public consultation event.  The contract to run the lido in conjunction with the Queensbridge Centre will be put out to tender in the new year and will be open only to not-for-profit companies.
 
 
CITY ACADEMY IN LABURNUM STREET - NO NEWS FROM UBS
No news from UBS on the progress of the city academy they are sponsoring on the site of Laburnum primary school and whether their scheme will include Haggerston Pool.  
 
 
MAYOR SAYS "KEEP HACKNEY SWIMMING"
But mayor Jules Pipe, writing in the Hackney Gazette said last week "....I am continuing to push for a restored swimming pool at the Haggerston Baths site as part of the new secondary school.....I have met the secretary of state for Education to discuss this and will continue to ensure that, one way or another, a swimming pool for community use remains a key part of the development".  Read the whole article here http://www.clissoldleisure.com/stories/storyReader$773
 
 
LABURNUM STREET GALLERIES AND STUDIOS
The Council had intended the site of Tannery Arts and the 2 galleries at Brunswick Wharf in Laburnum Street to be part of the school development.  But the site owner, Russell Gray, and the artists working at the gallery and studios mounted a campaign to keep Tannery Arts there - the Independent wrote the full story, you can read it here http://education.independent.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=545751. 
 
The Council has now backed down and the new city academy is to be fitted onto the site of the existing primary school.  Tannery Arts owner, Russell Gray,  who owns a property company,  has offered to fund some of the refurbishment of Haggerston Pool since his site is to be left out of the school development.
 
 
CLISSOLD - ONE YEAR ON..... 
The anniversary of the closure of Clissold Leisure Centre will be reached at the end of November.   There's a lot of media coverage at present because this coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the lottery.  Clissold Leisure Centre cost £32 million to build instead of the original £7.5 million and was open for just 20 months.  £10 million was provided by the lottery fund. 
 
 
 .....AND ON AND ON 
The Architect's Journal reported in October that Hackney Council has settled out of court the first of the 2 Clissold Leisure Centre court cases - the one relating to the delays rather than the defects.  This has resulted in an undisclosed sum being paid to the council.
 
The Council have received the report on defects but say this cannot be published as it forms the basis of the second court case.
 
The scrutiny committee, run by Hackney Councillors, to look into what happened at Clissold - and which took evidence from Council officers and members of the public in June has not yet reported its findings. 
 
Clissold campaign website www.clissoldleisure.com .  Council website www.hackney.gov.uk/clissold  
 
LONDON POOLS CAMPAIGN - MYSTERY SWIMMERS 
Next week sees the launch of London Pools Campaign's "Mystery Swimmers" initiative.  To mark the 10 years of the lottery and find the true state of London's pools, LPC swimmers are visiting every pool in London to assess them for quality, cleanliness, state of repair, helpfulness of staff etc.  Pools will be named and shamed in the spring.