DEMONSTRATING WORKS!
Yes, it does!
What a great day for Lewisham! The community coming together to claim their rights!
No more subjects but informed citizens.
The demonstration saw about 200 people of every age and background come
together and march with joy to sing it to the mayor. This was the first
achievement of the day.
The second achievement of the day has been the definitive dismissal of
the unsavoury schools vs pools dilemma that the council wanted to put
the people of Lewisham into.
This is one of the richest towns in the world and to be asked to choose
between a pool and a school means only that whoever manages our money
should try to improve their record or get another job.
A speech by the secretary of the local NUT outside the Town Hall and
the fact that the petition was handed in by councillor Helen LeFevre,
elected by the campaign for the new secondary school in Lewisham,
demolished the argument that those that want to keep the pool don't
care about children as the Mayor suggested.
The sight of the Council Town Hall was already suggestive of an
exceptional meeting to come. This because most of the majority seats
were empty. A sign that many indeed didn't want to be associated with
this decision and they rather give it a miss altogether.
Soon came the time for the campaign to put their question from the public in.
The question was:
In your letter published in the local
press on 29th October 2003 you stated as follows: "As long as I am
mayor there will be a top class swimming facility in the centre of our
borough and I am looking forward to being the first person into the
pool when it re-opens."
This you said at the time to quit the rumours surrounding the fate of Lewisham's best swimming pool.
Following your recent blatant U turn on this matter, we regrettably have to put our trust in you on hold.
We therefore ask you not to proceed
with the plan to demolish the Ladywell Leisure Centre until a new
upgraded public swimming facility is opened in the centre of this
borough.
And the answer from the Mayor was:
When I stood for election as Mayor in
2002, I said that an early priority will be to take urgent action to
ensure that in future there will be enough secondary school places in
the parts of the borough where they are needed. For many of us
that means opening a new secondary school. In the last two years
it has been possible to relieve some of the pressure by increasing the
roll at some schools and by opening Crossways Academy, which has helped
significantly by releasing space in the schools which send students on
to it. However, the need for a new school remains.
Shortly after being elected, I was
informed that asbestos had been discovered at Ladywell pool, which was
already listed for closure and to be replaced by a new leisure centre
in central Lewisham. At the same time a number of possible sites
for the new school were being explored. My view was that the potential
gap of 8 years before the new pool would be ready was far too long and
that Ladywell should be brought back into use as soon as possible.
Until this Spring I believed that the
Play Tower site was achievable as the site for the new school.
The decision of the MPA to market their property on the site rather
than sell it to us by direct negotiation wrecked that possibility.
I asked Council officials again to
look at alternative sites which would allow the new school to open in
temporary premises in 2006. The only way identified to achieve
this was to use the Ladywell pool site.
This presented me with a dilemma on
the one hand the need to further increase the supply of secondary
places by opening a new school as quickly as possible on the other my
commitment to keeping Ladywell open until the replacement was
ready. It is my job to resolve such dilemmas and make decisions,
however difficult. I took into account many factors; however
three in particular weighed heavily with me:
I have consistently promised parents and students that a new school will take in its first students in 2006.
The Lewisham Gateway scheme is now a certainty, ensuring a new leisure centre in central Lewisham will be delivered. The Downham Lifestyles pool will open in 2006.
I therefore decided to accept that
the Ladywell pool should close in 2007 to provide the permanent site
for the new school.
Lewisham needs better schools and
better leisure facilities and I am determined to deliver them. Lewisham
is however a heavily built-up area and there are very few sites
available for development. This means that in order to make the
progress we want, we also have to live with disruption and short term
problems in this case the gap between the closure of one leisure
centre and the opening of its replacement.
I can understand those who use
Ladywell pool wanting to delay the opening of the school but I must
take all things into account and my conclusion is that on balance the
school should take priority.
Then we had the possibility of an extra question. We didn't take this opportunity as we have only one question for the mayor.
We pointed out to the mayor that his reply conteins several
imprecisions and that our campaign is here to stay and to tackle him
about the issue until we have a satisfactory response.
We also riminded the room of our intention to ask the single
councillors about their voting on the issue and the reasons behind
those and to consequently put their voters aware of their record in the matter of
demolition of public facilities.
Later in the meeting councillor Julia Fletcher read out the motion
asking the Mayor not to proceed with the demolition of the Ladywell
Leisure Centre until the replacement is built.
Her introductory speech, together with that of councillor Ian Page
which was the other councillor to present the motion, touched on all
the milestones of this sorry story.
Then the Mayor stood!
And he told everybody about how hard his job can be sometimes. When you
have to make hard decisions. When you have to find a site for a school
and the only piece of land in the Borough available is the land where
the swimming pool stands.
If only anybody had a better idea! Maybe some council official has a
better idea. Maybe somebody from the opposition has a better idea.
Maybe somebody in the majority has a better idea but didn't speak it
out yet. Maybe we ought to try a little bit harder to find a solution.
Does anybody want to give me a possible solution to this school riddle?
If you can do so we can spare the pool.
After saying this he sat.
He hadn't touched the velvet of the chair yet that from the chair next
to him deputy mayor councillor Gavin Moore stood and said that in the
light of this challenge from the Mayor about finding a better place for
the school, they should give themselves some more time before putting
to vote the motion from the opposition.
So he asked to vote for the postponment of the vote for Julia
Fletcher's motion to the next council meeting that will be held on the
28th October.
The majority voted in favour, the minority against, nobody absteined.
So the postponement was approved.
And all the Labour councillors could breath again.
Later on the agenda there was a question by councillor Darren Johnson
about wether the council had carried out any study on the impact of the
closure of the pool and what consultion was carried out.
The answer shines for elusiveness. Read it all here.
Another important question from the opposition was posed by councillor Mark Morris.
The Cabinet was here asked to give a report on the state of the works for the Downham pool.
The answer this time is much more grim then elusive.
In short, the works haven't started yet, if and when they will commence is anybody's guess.
Read it all here.
Quick analisys
With this excellent piece of theatre they could buy themselves some time.
They surely hope that the campaign loses pace, but maybe they will
really look for some new site for the school.
On the school issue
Labour already lost few councillors at the last elections and surely
they don't want to loose any more seats.
Then there is the issue of the debate inside the Labour group at the council and the wider Labour party in Lewisham.
Many activists are very disillusioned about the real capability of this
council to respond to the needs of the borough, and if the look of the
council is one of cynisism and arrogance in these sort of decision
making they will see their chore support disappear. The mayor had the
evidence of this disaffection clearly displayed at the Brockley meeting
of the 7th September. (Read about this meeting here).
We know that many labour councillor don't support this decision but
they don't have the courage yet to challenge the Mayor's leadership
openly.
This political situation now is for our campaign a great achievement.
At the previous meeting all the majority councillors voted against a motion similar to the one put to vote today.
Only one councillor dared to abstein. And has been disciplined for doing so.
Moreover, the speeches from the some of the Labour councillors were deliveries of
utter arrogance and dismissive contempt, a tone that they wouldn't dare
to keep today.
And this is the achievement of the work of the Save Ladywell Pool campaigners.
Two months of relenteless building of a platform for the community to have their say on this tiny but important issue.
The right to have a swimming pool worthy of this name in Lewisham.
We now need urgently to hold a new meeting of the campaign to define the way forward.
This is not the moment to rest, we have to keep the pressure on the council.
We need to lobby each councillor and to be present in the press as much as possible.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday 7th October 7pm - 9 pm at the Ladywell Leisure Centre.
