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| SWIM BATH BACKLASH |
Town Hall facing ‘massive’
campaign over closure
PRESSURE was last night (Wednesday) growing on the Town Hall
to come clean over its plans for the historic Prince of Wales
swimming baths as campaigners geared up to fight any closure plan.
Anxious users inundated the New Journal with letters and phone
calls this week after council chiefs refused to categorically
rule out closure. Author Hunter Davies and Fiona Millar, the former
Number 10 press aide and partner of Tony Blair’s former spin
chief Alastair Campbell, added their voices to the growing concern.
Ms Millar, a governor of Gospel Oak school, who took the government
to task two years ago over school funding cuts, warned that pupils
would lose out if the baths, opened in 1901, closed.
“All the schools throughout Camden use it,” she said.
“It is so important. I know pupils at Parliament Hill and
William Ellis (schools in Highgate) rely on it. I hope the council
find the cash. It’s part of our heritage.
“It is so important for children to swim – it is a requirement
for them to learn to swim and then there is the public health
issue. Having had just Kentish Town open while Swiss Cottage has
been closed has proved how much the borough needs another pool.
Of course it is important for children to learn but it is also
used by so many adults to keep fit.”
She also pointed to new government rules that say children must
have been taught how to swim by year nine.
Concern has arisen because of the Town Hall’s vague pronouncements
over the future of the baths. The delay in completing the swimming
pool at Swiss Cottage has raised the spectre of no swimming facilities
in the north of the borough. The dilapidated building (below)
is in need of a refurbishment costing at least £17m, the
Town Hall says. Even this cheapest option would mean cutting the
swimming facilities in half and selling off land to raise cash.
Last night new council leader Raj Chada refused to guarantee the
cash would be found.
Meanwhile swimmers who approach the Town Hall are being given
an official line that there are “no plans” for closure.
In a letter to the New Journal this week the Town Hall’s
leisure chief, Councillor Phil Turner wrote: “There are no
plans to close (the centre) before redevelopment starts”
(see page 17). But he adds that the council will not make a decision
on whether the funding for redevelopment can be found until January
next year. If funding is not found the baths are in such a state
of disrepair they would have to close.
The building has reached the end of its natural life, leisure
department chiefs said last week.
Author Hunter Davies, The Beatles’ official biographer and
another regular swimmer at the pool, added: “I go there three
times a week it is a vital community pool, it serves so many people.
It’s a brilliant place and it would be tragic if it closed.
It is an important part of the borough’s history. Almost
every local school child has been taught to swim there, including
my children. I’d support a campaign to keep it open.”
Swimming coach David Hobbs, director of the Camden Swiss Cottage
Swim Club, said: “They will be letting the people of Camden
down if they let it close. There will be a huge backlash. It may
be a difficult situation but Camden needs to spend the money on
it. It would be a tragedy if it closed. More than 600 children
use the pools for swimming each week.
“There is a certain level of deprivation in Kentish Town.
These children need the pool, they won’t all travel to Swiss
Cottage.”
The Labour group pledged to refurbish the pool after the election
nearly four years ago but costs have spiralled. Without a housing
deal on the site, spending on the scheme will creep to the £25
million mark.
Adam Freer, from the Camden Swiss Cottage Masters Swimming Club,
added: “It is basically a catalogue of terrible errors at
the pool. They need to put a lot of money into it. They said they
would upgrade it a while ago but all they did was change the changing
rooms around. They need to put money into it. They need to do
what they said they would. We’ll campaign to keep it open.”
Privately, some Labour councillors fear that the centre could
be the victim of a bid by the party’s top brass to stave
off an unpopular council tax increase close to next year’s
Town Hall elections.
One source said: “Who realistically is going to commit to spending
all of this money so close to a election? It would be political
suicide.” |
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Give power to the people
POST-war, early 1950s Britain was still experiencing food rationing
and was a disillusioning place for English gourmands. The war had
destroyed the restaurant trade and, with few exceptions, post-war
eateries made the worst of a bad situation.
FULL STORY
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