LABOUR party chiefs admitted last night (Wednesday) that their pledge to refurbish Kentish Town swimming baths could fall apart due to spiralling costs.
Stumped councillors said they could not guarantee that funding would be available to save the crumbling sports centre in Prince of Wales Road.
They are now investigating the possibility of building homes behind the 100-year-old pool and selling them off to a property developer to raise cash for the urgently needed improvements.
But such a deal would still cost around £17 million – spending that nobody at the Town Hall is willing to commit to. Leisure chief Councillor Phil Turner told a cabinet meeting last night (Wednesday): “It is still a fantastic amount of money to keep the centre going. We can not make a commitment to spend that kind of money.”
Without a housing deal to prop it up, the rescue package to save the pool would cost £18 million simply to repair basic faults and up to £29 million to create an up-to-date modern sports centre.
Cllr Turner added: “This is massive expenditure for the council to even contemplate. The pool is over 100 years old. It’s not fit for purpose in the 21st century. It is particularly difficult to maintain and expensive to run. We need to look at doing something but that doesn’t come cheap.”
The crisis at the pool – revealed most starkly last year when a lump of concrete fell from the ceiling and this summer with misfiring machinery and boilers – has left the Labour council with a massive headache because of persistent pledges to users that they are committed to the refurbishment.
They must now choose between abandoning one of their key promises close to next year’s council elections or splashing out on an expensive scheme which could fuel an unpopular rise in council tax. Finance chief Councillor John Mills said last night (Wednesday): “Seventeen million pounds is a huge amount of money to find in the budget. It is a very high priority scheme but it is going to be a very hard nut to crack.”
He later told the New Journal that the cost of the scheme had spiralled steeply because the project had been initially underestimated.
Cllr Mills said: “The cheapest option would be to close it but we don’t want that. If we tried to sell it who would buy it. If somebody wanted to use it as a leisure centre they would face the same problem as we are. If they wanted to develop it they would find planning restrictions because it is a listed building. We could sell the land behind the building to a developer but that only brings the cost of the project down to the £17 million.”
A crunch finance meeting in January will see council chiefs make a decision on whether or not to splash out on the refurbishment. Greenwich Leisure Limited, the company which has managed the pool since winning a 15-year contract earlier this year, will be monitoring the situation but are not committed to shelling out for improvements. A council report warned that further problems at the pool could force it to close before any refurbishment begins. (see back page)
Cllr Mills said: “I don’t want to be optimistic but there are some surpluses elsewhere that we may be able to get in for this project. It is very important to explain to the community what constraints we are facing.”
Nevertheless, Labour figures were ominously trumpeting services at other sports centres in Camden last night (Wednesday) as the pool’s uncertain future was laid bare at the meeting.
Cllr Turner said: “We have two totally modern sports centre at Swiss Cottage and Talacre (Kentish Town). We have also got commitments to modernise the Oasis Centre (in Covent Garden) as well.”