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Baths closure has left us high and dry
• LIKE many residents I view the ongoing saga of Kentish Town baths with a great deal of concern.
Surely after being in power for nine months, which of course followed several months when the Baths were the major topic of local political controversy, the new administration should have some costed plans for how they want to renovate this vital community asset?
Following the meeting attended by leisure chief Councillor Flick Rea last week, I learn that the council can make no commitments on when the Baths will be returned to the community, or how much their plans will cost.
Local schools who use the baths have been left high and, quite literally, dry. It also seems they are not even making a commitment to keeping three pools – the main difference between the Lib Dems’ proposals and the cheaper alternative put forward by Labour. What a shambles!
Surely when we are dealing with such vast sums of money, taxpayers are entitled to proper planning, proper consultation and a proper scrutiny process? The council has failed on all three points – I’m afraid the finance department will be having many sleepless nights in the coming months.
RUAIRI McALEESE
Hawley Road, NW1
• I HAVE a lot to be grateful for regarding Kentish Town Baths because it was there that I learned to swim in the 1950s and without realising my talent, I soon became a champion swimmer representing my primary, secondary schools and the area of Middlesex County.
However, the Baths were closed down in the late 1950s for much needed repairs and renovation.
Looking back on the situation, this is quite understandable as the Baths which were built in 1901 had come to the end of its first phase.
After the modernisation had taken place, I was lucky enough to be invited to swim with Anita Lonsborough, the Olympic Gold Medallist, who opened the Baths in 1961.
Those of us who regularly use them should now be grateful for the present closure and see that the Baths have now come to the end of their second phase of life and the closure is signifying this. It is better to close now rather than continue until there is a tragedy.
I am heavily involved in swimming. I teach babies and toddlers to swim, I judge and timekeep at galas, I am a member of the London Pools Campaign working very hard to prevent pools from closing and I am Chair of the London Schools’ Swimming Association.
I have had great experience of seeing pools close never to open again. I have had to relocate schools so that children are catered for. I would passionately like to see every child in London being given the wonderful opportunity to learn to swim.
I would like to see many more pools all over London providing swimming as a much deserved right for all.
After all, at the last Olympics we did not have one London representative and it would be great to see that happen in the 2012 Olympics especially as we are hosting this historic event.
So I think we should give our council the support they need in giving us our pools for the future and hopefully for the next 50 years.
I appreciate all the pain, suffering and difficulties we will all experience.
I feel for our school children, I would like to see more Camden pupils participating in London Schools competitions and I hope the repairs will not take as long as the three years predicted by the council.
I look forward to the day in the not too distant future when we can all say we are proud of our Baths and the renovation work has been worth waiting for.
BRENDA HUMPHREYS
(Chair London Schools’ Swimming Association)
• AT the council’s public meeting about the future of Kentish Town Baths last week I was astonished to hear an admission from the Lib Dem’s Leisure and Culture chief, Cllr Flick Rea, that they have no idea how long the refurbishment will take or how much it will cost.
They have closed the baths suddenly and unexpectedly, despite having nine months in power to consult and plan and yet, seemingly, have done neither.
A large project of this type, that requires millions of pounds of tax payer investment, surely needs to be properly planned and costed before you commit to it.
To say this project is currently ill-conceived would be to falsely credit the Lib Dems with actually having a plan.
I hope Kentish Town Sports Centre users and Camden’s residents continue to press the Lib Dem/Tory council for a properly costed option that the community has a chance to comment on. In the mean time don’t believe Lib Dem claims that they have ‘saved’ the baths – there is simply no evidence to support it.
SARAH HAYWARD
Leverton Street, NW5 |
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