 |
Lambeth Liberal DemocratsNews, views and contact information for the
|
Labour in Deep Water over Swimming Pool Closures
August 5, 2009 10:07 AM
Streatham Swimming Pool is at risk of immediate closure
Not content with its shock Library Closures programme, a Labour-commissioned Council report actually signs the death warrant for two of the boroughs best-loved swimming pools.
Labour politicians are in complete disarray after it became public knowledge that two key regeneration schemes in Clapham and Streatham that were funding new leisure centre provision were now close to collapse.
The TESCO-led Streatham Hub scheme, which would have seen a state-of-the-art skating rink and leisure centre, had been limping along for nearly 3 years with no sign of progress. Labour's Leaders even signaled that work would commence in January 2009. That proved another false promise.
Latest news suggests that TESCO is re-evaluating the whole scheme which may involve yet another planning application and further delay even as the most positive outcome. Yet the stakes could never be higher. The damning condition report into crumbling Council assets reveals that the swimming pool is in such a dire state of repair that it may close long before a new scheme ever materializes.
Even the TESCO-owned Skating Rink is saddled with outdated equipment and is operating sub-standard facilities. Any serious breakdown could also mean the end for this iconic local and ice regional facility.
The picture in Clapham is hardly less bleak. Labour committed itself to a poorly thought-out redevelopment that would have seen the closure of the existing Clapham Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre long before a replacement was built. This was in direct contradiction of an election pledge to maintain continuity of the pool.
Again Labour's preferred partner for the redevelopment scheme is now unable to proceed in its present form and the Council's gloomy audit of the current pool facilities suggests that enforced closure due to structural defects may be imminent.
In the worst-case scenario this would leave only Brixton with a functioning leisure centre and even that has serious question marks over its long-term survival despite recent massive Council funding just to keep it going.
Many critics have questioned exactly what, if anything, Lambeth residents may have as a legacy of the 2012 London Olympics.
That legacy could just prove to be to have no operable indoor swimming pools under Labour who have managed even to build a new school in Stockwell that used to have a swimming pool without one.
That scenario really would put them in deep water.