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Loampit Vale plans revealed

The plans for the new Leisure Centre to replace Ladywell Pool are finally being made public and prior to submitting planning application the developers ask the public what do they think of the proposal.

Here's the link to the website for the development.
http://www.loampitvale.co.uk/index.html

As you can see by the picture the new centre will be a stand alone building rather than stuck in a windowless court-yard as in the plans for this development produced by the Council last year.

Maybe the work we did to bring the attention of the public to the particular wickedness of those architects' brainwaves helped to bring this dramatic change of design.

On the other hand it could also be that it became a stand alone building so that work on the pool can start earlier and maybe have it finished just before next Council elections. But maybe we're being suspicious.

Still, the joy is limited to the provision of natural light and to the fact that the centre will also include a climbing wall.

Apart from that the plan is the same and as swimming goes the Council wants to build an 8 lanes pool of 25 metres plus a teaching pool.

As we identified last year, this new centre will be delivered together with thousands of new flats, flats for new residents that will come to live at such convenient distance from this new pool that they will use it heavily.

The picture on the home page of the development's website speaks volumes, you can see the Loampit Vale development (800 flats), the Gateway development (further 800 flats) and you can also see on top of the illustration, to the left of what will be the new bus station the new blocks to be built at Thurston Road (we don't know the details of that development but it is of about the same scale). Other large developments, like the 500 new flats in nearby Conington road, are currently being built in the area.

But it doesn't end here, when last year the Council made its needs' assessment for the new leisure centre it did not only forget to account for these developments at such close vicinity, it also forgot to consider the additional usage derived from the vicinity of the transport interchange for trains, DLR and buses.

Ladywell Pool is well used and often even overcrowded, if it has to be replaced then one would expect the Council to deliver something of value for the whole community, not a lifestyle pool for the new development that cuts out many of the current swimmers as well as many of the potential swimmers of the future because of lack of capacity.

When 4 years ago the Council started promising a grand replacement for Ladywell Pool the Mayor had even declared in writing that they would have looked for reintroducing competitive diving. In fact they only looked for a way that let them get away without having to provide it, together with everything else that's not just the absolute minimum requirements.

Ladywell Pool with its 33 m 6 lanes pool provides exactly the same total length of swimming lanes than what planned at Loampit Vale. On the plus side for the new development the teaching pool will be a bit larger than that of Ladywell Pool and will have a movable floor, on the downside the deep end of the main pool will be a mere 2 m compared to the 3.8 m of Ladywell and this reduction of deep end means that the diving platform that where removed from Ladywell Pool some years ago to never come back again will never be back again in an even more definitive way, and together with the opportunity for diving also other activities only possible in deep water will disappear from Lewisham forever, like the scuba-diving club currently training at Ladywell.

But moving away from swimming this plan is also seriously lacking facilities for dry sports. There will be a gym and 2 fitness suits but much more could have been included, even just to replace a few community sport facilities that have been lost over the past few years and that the Council always maintained that they would have been replaced with this new leisure centre, more specifically there's no sports halls or squash court.

Anyway, what there is now is an opportunity to have your voice heard, the developers want to gather comments from the public prior to submitting the planning application, please use this opportunity to tell them that what they are planning is inadequate and they should provide what this community needs, not less.

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