Hampstead Heath ponds

• THE introduction of compulsory charges for swimming in the Heath ponds is wrong on every conceivable level, (Confirmed: Compulsory charges WILL be introduced at Hampstead Heath swimming ponds, March 13).

But I want to highlight one particular angle not much considered. A lot of the City of London Corporation’s frothing in recent months has been lamenting the increased popularity of wild swimming in recent years (as if this were a bad thing) and exploiting the operational challenges thrown up by this as a pretext for their obviously inappropriate proposal to enforce charges.

Apparently the last two summers were exceptional and this explains the influx of swimmers. I’m afraid the science tells us this is going to keep happening.

The reason people are coming to the ponds in their droves and climbing over the walls of the lido, as they did at Brockwell lido, and illegally jumping into the non-swimming ponds, as they did into the River Lea and at Limehouse Basin and elsewhere, is because it gets bloody hot in the city and people need an escape from it.

London, a stressful enough place to live and work in the height of summer even now, should be providing more space for people to cool off rather than less, and certainly not fencing off and excluding people from the ones we already have by pricing them out.

Borough councils, the mayor, even the city corporation (though their contempt for this sort of public-service logic is clear) need to commit to opening up and funding safe outdoor places across London to swim, free and accessible to all, just as their predecessors did for so many of the parks we now take for granted.

We all know the money’s there if the political will exists. If adequate provision for safe swimming isn’t made, people will simply resort to unsafe alternatives, and the authorities will once again find themselves picking up the pieces.

Outdoor swimming is not a fad that’s going away, nor should we wish it was. As the climate warms, it’s increasingly going to start being viewed as an essential public utility.

This is a generational issue. Simply put, being able to cool down in summer isn’t the luxury activity the corporation wants to paint it as, but a basic part of keeping this city habitable.

Those of us who swim year round and have our own special connection to the ponds in winter should make sure we don’t let them forget this.

ONUR TEYMUR
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