The next meeting of the Haggerston Pool Campaign is Thursday 12th February at 5:30/6 pm at the doctors surgery (Queensbridge Practice) at 10 Holly St. Everyone welcome.

Hackney Gazette reports today that international finance company UBS have been identified as sponsors for the Laburnum City Academy (new independent Secondary School on the site of Laburnum Primary School) which may include renovating Haggerston Pool to provide sports facilities for the new school and the community. The sponsor is commissioning a conservation study of the pool which is due to be published in April. This will look at how the conditions of the listing of the building could fit with any new plans for the building. We have copies of the initial architects plans for the renovation of the pool at this office, if you would like to see a copy, please get in touch and they can be posted to you.

UBS are due to launch their full proposals for the City Academy on June 15th.

Speedo (the swimming equipment manufacturers) also expressed an interest in sponsoring art events at Haggerston pool, with a view to being involved with its long term future, but were told by Hackney Council that they did not need another corporate sponsor.

We have still not had an answer to our letter to the Chief Executive of Hackney Council sent at the beginning of December asking how public access to the pool will be managed and paid for if the City Academy plan goes ahead. We have written another letter asking why Speedo’s approach was turned down .

Clissold Leisure Centre was opened 2 years ago this week at a cost of between £28 and £34 million (instead of the budgeted £6 million). It has now been closed for 2 months and no date is given for its re-opening. The original 3 month re-opening date on a notice outside the building has been tipexed out.

In an article last month in Building Design magazine it was reported Hackney Council has dropped its case against the project engineers, but are still suing the architects and quantity surveyors. However a spokesperson from the Council told the magazine that "meetings between legal parties to discuss liability for the cost overrun were still due to take place".

Dianne Abbott (MP for North Hackney) has described the situation as a scandal and asked for a public enquiry into what has happened. In a letter to constituents she says she met senior officers from Hackney Council and that no repair work is going on. She says "repairs to the centre could well cost many millions......Nobody has been able to give me a date for it re-opening or indicate where this funding will come from to do the repairs. My concern is that the centre will stay closed indefinitely with the inevitable vandalism".

More information on www.clissoldleisure.com. Sign the petition for Clissold's re-opening at http://www.petitiononline.com/N169EX/petition.html or there are copies in the shops around the centre.

Meantime the Hackney based Para-Olympic swimmers have had their training schedule interrupted again. The swimmers - trained by Michelle Weltman (herself an international swimmer) - include Para-Olympic gold medal winner Elaine Barrett. Four months before the 2000 Olympics they had to suddenly scratch round for pool time when Haggerston Pool closed. Now coming up to the Athens Olympics they are facing the same problems with the loss of their training space at Clissold (which was set up as a regional centre for disability swimming).

Kings Hall Leisure Centre also closed over the Christmas Period – due to steam leaks from the boiler which it is said brought down false ceilings and got into the electrics of the heating system. The staff at the centre report to users that there are limited cleaning materials at the centre, and some swimmers have complained about the "milkiness" of the water.
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Users of Britannia Leisure Centre point out that this centre also closes regularly for “technical faults” – mostly to do with the boiler. One of these closures was the first week in January – leaving Hackney with no public pool facilities at all at the start of the year.
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Some positive news from the London Fields Lido group - where proposals to bring the lido back into use have been submitted to Hackney Council at a meeting with the Community and Environment directorate. The main discussion point is the issuing of a long lease. The Environment Trust, who are running the project, have had positive feedback about capital funding on condition of the lease being granted. To help bring the lido back, please send letters of support to Cllr Guy Nicholson (guy.nicholson@hackney.gov.uk) and Carole Steward (Assistant Director Culture and Leisure Services) (carole.stewart@hackney.gov.uk) or at Hackney Town Hall, London E8 1EA. More information about the plans from the Environment Trust robert@envirotrust.org or 7264 4660

While the situation in Hackney (3 closed pools) is particularly bad, there are closed and threatened pools all over London. In the last 10 years there has been a net loss of 9 public pools, reducing the total number in London to 103. London Pools Campaign is set up to highlight the decline in numbers of public pools, to support local campaigns and to look for alternative sources of funding – particularly from regional and health budgets - since it is clear that local authorities struggle to find the funding for pools. More information from the contact details below and from http://londonpoolscampaign.ground-level.org