As you will know the pool has now been closed for more than 2 years. The building is deteriorating and nothing much seems to be happening.

Shoreditch Our Way (Shoreditch New Deal) plans for a Healthy Living Centre continue. The HLC is now based around Shoreditch park, with the pool still a part of the scheme, but no longer the 'hub'. ShOW felt compelled to move the plans as the funding for the swimming pool building was not forthcoming.

Haggerston Pool has apparently been on the council's disposal list for the past 2 years. I have spoken to Guy Nicholson (chair of regeneration) who says that while the council is doing valuations, as far as members are concerned it is not on the list for disposals. Council decisions all held up while 1. elections and 2. new council structure sorted out. The new arrangement is that there will be a council cabinet member responsible for regeneration and/or community & learning.

The basic finances for the pool seem to be as follows. We need at least £3million to do up the building. We need to find something like £200,000 a year to subsidise the running of the pool (no exact figures available). And we need to have the ownership of the building secured - like a long lease from the council to eg the Haggerston Pool Community Trust.

The Victoria Baths in Manchester are further down the line than us in getting their pool re-opened (though it has already been closed for 9 years). They decided early on in their campaign to be independent of their local authority and to deal with them only about the ownership of the building. They have secured funding from the Architectural Heritage Trust, SRB and have a partnership set up with the Health Care Trust and a not-for-profit leisure management co. So am looking into this. Also (see above in finances) they have decided in their first phase to have a Healthy Living Centre without a swimming pool as couldn't work out the revenue subsidy for the pool.

A Proposal

ShOW (Shoreditch Our Way) have commissioned Levitt Bernstein (Patrick Hamill) to put together one option of how the pool finances could be sorted out. They are looking at using some of the pool building (the decaying part to the west of the actual pool) and the passage way next door to build part of a Healthy Living Centre with flats above. Finances not yet calculated for this, but should raise at least £1 million and generate some subsidy. More info to follow.

New School

ShOW (Shoreditch Our Way) are investigating the possibility of situating a new secondary school on the site of the Britannia Leisure Centre.

I'm in the process of building a website for the pool - but need more material - anyone got any articles, views, reports they'd like to add to the site? Any comments on all this? With best wishes from Liz Hughes HCD Haggerston Pool Development Worker If you would like to receive these bulletins (by email or post) : Contacts : pool@hced.co.uk Phone HCD : 0207 690 6662 (Mondays and Tuesdays) Write to HCD : Liz Hughes, HCD, 62 Beechwood Road, London E8 3DY