saveladywellpool.com

Big round up of news!

The problem with swimming in England has finally hit the national press and Ladywell had its fair share of attention.

We already reported on the piece that on Monday 2nd January The Guardian dedicated to New Year's resolutions, swimming and politics.

Yesterday Tuesday 3nd December, Duncan Goodhew instead spoke at the BBC Radio 4 the Today programme explaining the alarming situation that scores of swimming pools are facing all across England.

Duncan Goodhew was confronted on the program by the Minister for Sport Richard Caborn Mp but as he was speaking a lot of sense the man from central government didn't seem to understand and started making strange noises over him.

The Ministry for Sport called public swimming expensive and said that swimming is sometimes subsidised to the tune of £5 per each swim!

He also added that now there are much more private pools then there ever were in England and that to him that seemed to be a reason good enough for not investing in public swimming facilities.

We think that with these ideas Richard Caborn MP should consider a job in the private sector at once.

Maybe somebody else with higher ambitions for public swimming is there waiting for an opportunity to do some good.

Listen to a recording of the program here.

This interview was also reported in today's Daily Telegraph's "Closure of swimming pools 'is damaging our health'" where Catriona Davies covers the problems that swimming in England is facing and uses Ladywell as a case study.

The article reports on what Richard Caborn MP said yesterday together with comments by former Sport Minister Kate Hoey MP, the Secretary of the British Swimming Schools Association Brenda Humphreys and Save Ladywell Pool Campaign secretary Max Calo' that said:

"Swimming pool sites in London are worth a lot of money and the council accountants just see the money, not the pool."

Richard Caborn Mp's enormities were also overheard by Sarah Harris that on the Daily Mail writes "Now Labour pulls plug on swimming pools".

Again the interview is reported by James Sturcke in the the Guardian NewsBlog section. He also refers to our campaign.

On page 11 of today's Evening Standard we can instead read an extensive article on the problems of swimming entitled "Olympic hopes sunk?" in which Ross Lydall expresses the widespread sense that the 2012 Olympic will only highlight how poor our public swimming provision is.
Here's a passage from the article:

"There are only two 50-metre pools in the capital - at Ealing and Crystal Palace - though both are too narrow to be used for the Olympics, where 10 lanes are required.
Paris has 18 pools of 50 metres while there are 13 more public pools in central New York than Inner London..."

In this Evening Standard piece Lewisham and Ladywell also get a mention and Cllr Darren Johnson questions the value of the Olympics for the public at large:

"What benefits can Londoners expect from these Olympics if they aren't being given the opportunity to participate in the sports they are going to be watching?"

Also this morning Save Ladywell Pool Campaign Secretary Max Calo' was interviewed on LBC by Nick Ferrari.

Nick Ferrari - who is a Blackheath resident - said that Ladywell is a ghastly place and that it should be pulled down to make space for a car park and asked Max why can't all the people just join a posh David Lloyd club just like he does and the Minister for Sport Richard Caborn MP seems to think this is a good alternative to public swimming pools.

Listen to the recording of the Nick Ferrari program here ...read more...