Lewisham Council
Wavelengths *swimming* Pool opens!
Genuine congratulations to Lewisham Council today for finally re-providing the north of the borough with a swimming pool.
The story goes back in time for two decades when Laurie Grove Pool was closed and replaced with Wavelenghts Pool, a circular lagoon style paddling pool with wave machine and a pole in the middle, lots of fun for the very young and generally popular with the non-swimming community, the bathers. Unfortunately that pool is completely useless to all those that want to have a proper swim.
In recent times it emerged that most of the children in the north of the Borough couldn't swim, the most recent available recorded data for the Key Stage 2 target for swimming (being able to swim for 25m at the age of 11) for that neighbourhood was a miserable 11%, a disaster when compared to the national 83% figure.
In this shocking data there's probably a lesson for the whole nation - that's what happens when there isn't a local swimming pool available.
Today the swimming misery of the north of Lewisham has ended, with an additional 6 lanes swimming pool the people of Deptford and surrounding are finally rejoined with their swimming pool.
So well done to all involved with this at Lewisham Council for this relatively inexpensive but very effective delivery.
Links:
Lewisham Council's announcement
A local swimmer's review of the pool
Cllr Best was AWOL for two months
The curse of absent Councillors that show up just enough to trouser their allowances has been a recurrent and widely debated issue.
A much less known but just as important problem is that of Councillors that despite their alleged 3 briefings a week with officers fail to know a thing about what's going on under their noses.
One such example is Cllr Chris Best that as Cabinet Member for Community Services last week declared in writing that for two months running she didn't know a thing about the Legionella Bacteria at Ladywell Pool and that she only discovered it following its closure.
...read more...Public Question No. 22
London Borough of Lewisham
Council Meeting
30th June 2008
Question asked by: Mr M CalòQuestion
When was the Cabinet Member for Community Services informed that Legionella Bacteria had been found in the water system of the Ladywell Leisure Centre?
Reply
The Cabinet Member for Community Services was informed that legionella bacteria had been found in the showers at Ladywell Leisure Centre on 30 May following its closure the previous evening.
Will Ladywell Pool re-open?
At last week's Council meeting Cllr Andrew Milton proposed the following motion:
"The Council notes with concern that contamination by Legionelle bacteria has caused the closure of Ladywell Leisure Centre pool and urges the Mayor to ensure that when it is reopened it is maintained to a good standard of hygiene"
Unfortunately a Labour amendment has eliminated from the motion the words "to ensure that when it is reopened it is maintained to a good standard of hygiene" and replaced them with words urging the Mayor to work with the Council's partners to deliver new facilities and congratulating the Government for its announcement that free swimming will be available to everyone by 2012.
As the words "when it is reopened" have been removed the approved motion does not make the Mayor commit to reopen the Pool.
Any speculation is legitimate. We have been dealing long enough with Lewisham Council to know that alongside some very good people there are unfortunately some slithering snakes too and they may well be hard at work right now. The fact that there have been no details given as to when the pool will reopen only add to the fear.
But of course the lack of details may well be down to ineptitude, after all, this sorry tale is all about ineptitude.
...read more...Cllr Morris runs the marathon
With sport and leisure hot on the agenda Lewisham risks to become a place that's serious about fitness.
Good to see that one can attend years of committee meetings and still run a marathon, as he said today:
"I have just been for a run of 2 hours and fifteen minutes - I am feeling surprisingly well!"...read more...
Mayor nods to poor project
On Wednesday 10th January 2007 Mayor Bullock decided not to ask any awkward question and approved the document on the new pool put under his nose (or nodded as a News Shopper title well described our system of governance).
Cabinet Member for Community Cllr Best said that the project demonstrates the Council's commitment to improve the town centre and leisure and sports facilities available.
One officer pointed out that a considerable number had not responded to the question about the size of the pool. Also there were concerns by the public the size of the pool did not match the number of residents.
Does this mean that there will be a rethink of this leisure centre since concerns were reported or does it mean that there will be no rethink since Cllr Best thinks that everything's fine and dandy? We're not given to know and the fear is that out of the limelight the project is pushed forward untouched regardless of comments that find their only life in the minutes of meetings.
We need all parts of our community to lobby for a substantial improvement, as it stands now this proposal represents an unacceptable loss of quality of sports and leisure provision, a damage to quality of life in this part of the Borough and a once-in-a-lifetime missed opportunity.
How anybody at London Borough of Lewisham thought that this exceedingly poor proposal would have passed unnoticed is beyond our understanding.
This document wants to replace the spacious, airy and bright pool at Ladywell Leisure Centre with an undersized pool without deep end in the shady courtyard of a cluster of blocks of flats (see the plan here).
Quite a way from Mayor Bullock's vision of two years ago:
"...I want this development to be the flagship leisure facility for this borough comprising two full swimming pools, one as a public swimming pool and one for structured lessons and training. We will look at incorporating a competition diving feature alongside the pools..."...read more...
Mayor Bullock 2004
(Council's brochure "Active, healthy and fun - leisure in Lewisham")
Loampit papers fools no one
Lewisham Council's website: Council thinking on the specification of the proposed leisure facility at Loampit Vale is being guided by two documents, copies of which are available below.
The first is the Leisure Investment Strategy, which sets out the agreed approach to all sports related Council investment in the borough. The Leisure Needs Analysis expands on this by making recommendations about the mix and scale of indoor swimming and dry sports/fitness facilities that should be provided at the site.
Based on these documents, for feasibility purposes, architect Allies and Morrison were asked to prepare a design to illustrate the entire scheme, i.e. not just the leisure facility.
Only that the Leisure Needs Analysis is an appalling cluster of errors!
As we pointed out to Lewisham Council when it was made public after our request.
Officers of the London Borough of Lewisham accepted this fact as recorded by the South London Press:
"As a result of these comments, the council asked contractors to revisit their analysis, which they have done using two different ways of analysing the information.
"The results from these tests make us confident that provision will match or exceed demand."
One thing that Lewisham Council has done is to produce a spreadsheet with the swimming need for the forecast population by 2021 where they finally managed to include the residents for those chunks of the Borough that had been so conveniently forgotten in the first set of calculation.
One thing that they forgot to add instead is any amount of users from the London Borough of Greenwich and this is very odd as the Borough border is at a stone's throw from the site selected for the Leisure Centre.
All the more alarming if we consider that the site was selected for its vicinity with the transport interchange as the report that today the Mayor is asked to approve also states at paragraph 5.17:
The Loampit Vale location (at the northern end of Lewisham Central Ward) has been selected for the replacement pool for its excellent public transport links with bus services from all parts of the Borough, over ground train and DLR links for residents commuting out of the borough to work or study. [LINK]
But don't forget that the leisure centre is to be part of a redevelopment of our Town Centre that will create thousands of new homes. The forecast increase in population here considered although 'official' is completely unrealistic. In fact it predicts an increase for the combined wards of Ladywell and Lewisham Central of only 3356 inhabitants, we know already that a much higher number of new residents will come to live above the new leisure centre or within one minute walk due to the combined effect of the Loampit Vale, Gateway and Thurston Road developments. In time even more high-density developments are due to come as part of the changed Unitary Development Plan.
With these projections the idea of replacing the often overcrowded Ladywell Pool with something of similar or less capacity will mean building, in effect, a quasi-private pool for those residents of the redeveloped town-centre.
The assessment of the dry-sport facility has not been updated.
It states that there is not enough demand for a sports hall yet the calculation does not include population growth or an allowance for Greenwich residents and Lewisham residents from two wards within the (arbitrary) 2 km radius of catchment area.
All the documents here referenced are downloadable from this page.
The Mayor will decide on it tonight.
...read more...Full Council congratulates our campaign
On 22nd November 2006 Lewisham Council unanimously approved the following motion:
"This Council wholeheartedly endorses the decision by Mayor and Cabinet to select Lewisham Bridge as its preferred site for the new school to create an all-through 3-16 integrated school. This Council therefore agrees to work constructively with Mayor and Cabinet to minimise the risks associated with this project and overcome any potential obstacles in order to ensure the new school is delivered by the target date of 2010.
This Council also wishes to congratulate the long standing and vigorous campaign run by the Save Ladywell Campaign and The School for New Cross/Local Education by Parents groups. In particular this council commends the significant roles played by both Max Calo and former Councillor Helen Le Fevre".
The motion was proposed by Cllr Johnson and seconded by Cllr Britton, it then incorporated as an amendment part of another motion by Cllr Morris to be seconded by Cllr Milton that was consequently dropped.
Confused? Cllr Andrew Milton clarifies it on his blog here.
Here's the full minutes of the Council meeting.
...read more...Lewisham Council's announcement
Lewisham Council issued the following press release that we gladly report here in full:
...read more...Alternative site found for New School
Ladywell Pool is to remain open after the Mayor chose Lewisham Bridge as the site of the New School.
Steve Bullock said: “With an excellent alternative site now in place at Lewisham Bridge we can commit to keep Ladywell Pool open until its replacement is built.
“This is a the result I was always striving for and which changed circumstances now allows us to pursue.
"It is wonderful we can keep an obviously well loved pool like Ladywell in service.
"I feel the passionate and enthusiastic campaign by Save Ladywell Pool, although challenging at times, is a great example of how local people can get their views heard.
“Their work is an example to all communities and shows how people can get together and make a real difference.
"But we mustn't forget this has not been an easy decision. It will take a lot of hard work to deliver a new school at Lewisham Bridge and we need the support of everyone in the borough to make that happen.
“But I know thanks to excellent work by everyone involved I’ve chosen the right site to build a much needed New School for the north of the borough.
“Over the next few years this borough will see a really impressive level of investment in schools and pools with new pools at Downham, Wavelengths and Sundermead and more than £255m spent on rebuilding or refurbishing every secondary.
“Exciting times are ahead for the borough.”
Two alternative sites, Lewisham Bridge primary school and land at Lewisham Hospital, were identified following a search in August.
On receiving the in-depth appraisal from officers at the Mayor and Cabinet meeting on November 8, Steve Bullock decided to pursue the Lewisham Bridge site because it offered the best education opportunities in an excellent location.
A full consultation will now be held on the plans to drop the Ladywell option in place of a 3-16 all through school which joins Lewisham Bridge primary with the new secondary. Parents, teachers and any interested party will be able to have their say on the plans.
The consultation will also propose creating a federation which will manage Prendergast, the New School and Crofton schools.
Lewisham Bridge has become available because development plans in the town centre are much more advanced. Previously the site had been rejected because building a school there could have put negotiations for the town centre housing and redevelopment plans at risk.
Botched Report to plan for the future
Last year Lewisham Council instructed a consultant to do a "desk based research" to determine the size and specifications of the new leisure centre at Lewisham Centre.
This report was based on data that was greatly distorted due to unjustified assumptions and unchallenged contradictions either included into the brief given or developed during the research.
It also includes some plain mistakes due to evident lack of first hand experience of the area of the consultant.
The warped result somehow managed to slip unobserved through the policy making process and to become part of the Council's strategy.
Fortunately this botched job has now been made public and after we pointed at its shortcomings Lewisham Council's officials have admitted that it needs to be improved.
...read more...Consultation at the Pool
Lewisham Council invites you to give them your opinion on their plan to replace the Ladywell Leisure Centre with a small pool without windows in the basement of a block of flats.
See it here.
Thursday 26th October 2006
Ladywell Leisure Centre
Iris Room
drop in consultation session
4 pm to 8:30 pm
Consultation warning!
"...I want this development to be the flagship leisure facility for this borough comprising two full swimming pools, one as a public swimming pool and one for structured lessons and training..."
Mayor Bullock 2004
(Council's brochure "Active, healthy and fun - leisure in Lewisham")
It's now 2006 and this week the Council starts a consultation on the new leisure centre and of course there's only one 25 m pool left in the proposed leisure centre.
This is the odd set of questions that the Council asks us to answer:
Our suggestion for this answer: please tick no and in the box for the additional comment state that the proposed leisure centre is not sufficient to accomodate the residents' needs and any housing development should only be planned on land not needed by leisure or education.Q1: In principle, do you agree that these sites should be developed for a high density, high quality mixed use scheme which includes new homes, new shops and community uses and a new leisure centre?
Q2: Do you think a mixture of housing including one, two and three bedrooms and above should be provided on these sites?
Our suggestion: you can use this question to reinforce the answer to Q1, in any case the answers to this questionnaire will not have any weight when deciding the mix of residential accommodation to build.
Q3: Do you think the new pool should have six or eight lanes?
Our suggestion: please don't tick any of the boxes but just write on the side that we need two full 25 m pools as part of this development.
Q4: Would you like to see conventional single sex or mixed 'village-style' changing facilities?
This is a meaningless red herring, write whatever you want.
Q5: How do you think we could involve children and young people in the design of the new pool?
Our suggestion: with these questions it looks like you think that we are all children!
In short the Council wants to build a few blocks of flats and close Ladywell Pool so that they can build even more flats. In exchange they'll build a small pool in the basement of one of the blocks in front of the station and they now ask us all to fill in a questionnaire so that they can then say that we asked for it.
We are now producing an additional set of questions that we'll ask people to fill in and deliver together with the questionnaire as an additional comment so that in their report they are forced to write down at least some of the things that people think of it.
The consultation ends on Wednesday 30th October 2006.
Click here to download the questionnaire but remember to handle it with care.
On Saturday 14th October there will be an open day on this development between 3 pm and 4 pm at the City Mission Church, Vian Street, Lewisham, SE13 7BJ.
...read more...Council's releases more information on the site search
Mayor agrees to look at two alternative sites for new school:
"I am committed to carrying out a thorough search for an alternative site to discover if one can be found that meets all the requirements we have for delivering a new school for the borough...
Lewisham Council's website has today issued an updated and expanded press release on the site search for the new school. In the press release the Mayor also explains the situation with his own words in a very welcome statement on the situation.
A document with the reason for rejection of 21 out of the 25 rejected sites examined by the Council's appointed consultants has been made available for download.
...read more...Plans for Wavelengths extension on display
On Thursday 21st September 2006 the public is invited to examine the plans for the new lane pool to be built as an extension to the Wavelengths Pool and Library Centre in Deptford. The public will be able to meet the architects and representatives from Parkwood Leisure and Lewisham Council. The event takes place between 6 pm and 8:30 pm.
The South London Press tells us also that:
Cllr Chris Best, Lewisham's cabinet member for community services said: "The planned extension of Wavelengths pool will offer first-class lane swimming facilities on the site that can be used competitively by local clubs and swimming teams."
A proper swimming pool in the north of the borough will also help remedy the disastrous situation that the north of the borough is suffering since the closure of Laurie Grove Pool many years ago and its replacement with the Wavelengths paddling centre.
A measure of the situation can be evinced by the reading of the application for funding recently submitted by Lewisham Council to the Amateur Swimming Association:
The ‘Every Day Swim’ project would be based in the north of Lewisham borough (information in regard to New Cross and Evelyn wards attached) and based at Wavelengths leisure centre, London SE8...
...residents in the north of the borough traditionally do not access healthy activities including swimming regularly even though when consulted swimming was an activity they would like to take part in...
...read more..."...percentage of 11 year olds achieving the statutory requirement for swimming in key stage 2. Lewisham currently at 36% The north of the borough 11%" (the national average for achieving the key stage 2 goal of being able to swim for 25 metres unaided is 83%, Ed.)
Swimming Times for Bullock
This month's issue (September 2006) of Swimming Times, the official journal of the amateur swimming association and the institute of swimming, dedicates this small article to the free swim for children under 16 scheme that Lewisham is running this summer in its swimming pools.
The scheme has indeed been so successful that a queue of children has been steadily present outside Ladywell pool all summer.
In the article Mayor Bullock says:
"I hope that by making swimming free for the borough's children this summer that many of them will learn how valuable and enjoyable swimming regularly can be."
Oh really? Then leave our swimming pool alone and get in your trunks instead Steve.
You may even get rid of that float that you keep under the shirt.
Back to the Drawing Board
1. Summary
1.1 This report recommends the basis for a response from the Mayor & Cabinet to the resolution of Council agreed on 14th June 2006 in respect of the site of the proposed new secondary school. The Mayor asked officers to investigate the feasibility of conducting a review of site options in the light of the Council decision. This report explains the basis for any further examination of available sites for the provision of a new school north of the South Circular, and recommends work to be carried out prior to a report to Mayor and Cabinet on September 27th 2006
2. Purpose
2.1. The Council meeting on June 14th 2006 resolved to request the Mayor to appoint independent advisors to investigate sites for a new school in the north of the borough, as an alternative to the Ladywell Leisure Centre site. This report provides advice to the Mayor on a recommended course of action
3. Recommendations
3.1. That the Executive Director of Regeneration be instructed to engage appropriate consultants to examine alternative sites for a new school in the north of the borough.
3.2. That the proposed criteria for the site search as set out in paras 5.5 and 6.4 be agreed
3.3. That the results of the site investigations be reported to Mayor and Cabinet on September 27th 2006.
3.4. That any decision on a revised closure date for Ladywell Leisure Centre be considered at the report identified in 3.3 above.
In yet another extraordinary turn of events on Wednesday 19th July 2006 the Mayor agrees with the Council and decides for a review of alternative sites for the new school!
...read more...Solicitor warns Council not to vote to save our pool
Motion in the name of Councillor Johnson to be seconded by Councillor Page
“This Council does not believe that a convincing case for closing Ladywell Leisure Centre in 2007 has yet been made. The current plans have failed to command public support and the recent local election results reflect that. The Council therefore agrees to appoint independent advisors to investigate more appropriate sites for a new school in the north of the borough, rather than the Ladywell Leisure Centre site. The independent advisors will be commissioned jointly by the Mayor and the Leader of the largest opposition group, in consultation with councillors of all parties, parents' representatives and teachers' unions. Ladywell Leisure Centre must not close until a new Centre in the vicinity is fully operational and full Council must receive regular reports on all progress made and/or difficulties encountered”.
Ladywell Leisure Centre and New School
This motion will be voted at Full Council meeting this Wednesday 14th June at 7:30 pm.
You can make a difference by coming down to the Town Hall and support the opposition as it works to save our pool.
We'll congregate outside Catford Town Hall at 7pm to move into the Council Chamber by the beginning of the Full Council meeting.
This motion has evidently worried the Town Hall's bosses so much that in an unheard of move the Council's solicitor sent a letter to Councillors telling them that they cannot take decisions.
This is a real power struggle between the humble Councillors, representing the interests of the people of Lewisham, and the Mayor and top officers that until now have always thought that they just own the Borough.
It's democracy in action, common sense against nonsense, fresh air against hot air.
Come and support the Council as it does its job! ...read more...
Minority Report to be discussed behind closed doors
Breaking News:A revised agenda for today's Overview and Scrutiny meeting has now been published and the officers decided that the public will not be allowed to be present in the Council Chamber when the Minority Report will be on discussion!
If they want to keep it all for themselves there must be something good in there. ...read more...
Minority Report to be discussed at Overview and Scrutiny on Monday
The Minority Report that Cllr Julia Fletcher and former Councillor Helen LeFevre had prepared at the end of the works of the Sub-committee that the Overview and Scrutiny Education Business Panel had set up with the mandate to investigate the background of the decision to build a school on the Ladywell Leisure Centre site will be on discussion on Monday.With the old one-party-state composition of the Council this document, that bravely exposes the findings of the sub-committee that are more uncomfortable for the Mayor and some top officers, could have remained for a very long time in some drawer before hitting the shredder.
This coming Monday it could even be approved.
The meeting takes place on Monday 12 June 2006 at 7.00pm - Council Chamber - Civic Suite - Lewisham Town Hall.
Read the Minority Report - pdf 66k;
Read the Foreword to the Minority Report - pdf 28k.
We followed the works of this sub-committee very closely, attended every meeting and reported about its remarkable proceedings on this website.
Here's a series of links to our reports of the various meetings of this panel:
- First meeting - Where a member of our campaign explains the members why the Council's works has been so incompetent;
- Second meeting - Where the Head of Education admitted of not reading key documents;
- Third meeting - When Cllr Madeleine Long tried to exclude the opposition members from the panel and the sub-committee heard about the failure to acquire the Police Station;
- Fourth meeting - rather uneventful meeting, the committee heard from Head of Planning and Head of Resources;
- Fifth meeting - the Mayor, the Cabinet Member for Education and the Chief Executive all admit of not reading key papers, the Mayor also down-plays his involvement in decision-making at the Council and volunteers the evidence that he's unaware of what the Coucil's doing. The Mayor's written statement submitted is also well worth a look;
- Sixth meeting - though we whitenessed this meeting we didn't actually write a report on this website. So, here's a quick summary: this was the meeting where the role of Overview and Scrutiny was examined. The Chair of O&S, Cllr Alan Smith had to explain why the committee hadn't signalled problems earlier. The main answer being that the committee has only 7 days by law to scrutinize and if the subject is complex that's not enough;
- The Last meeting - the meeting where the top officers of Lewisham Council are criticised for their appalling performance, the Mayor for being a rubber-stamp of the officers and the Chief Executive's written conclusions are 'noted' but not approved. Councilllr Fletcher and former Councillor LeFevre announce the intention to write a minority report.
...read more...More light casts shadow on Turkish Bath closure explanation
Ladywell Leisure Centre
Client: - London Borough of Lewisham
Project value: - £1.8 millionPinnacleESP was appointed by London Borough of Lewisham as Project Manager and Service Consultant on this complex project. The project incorporated the design and project management of the building services refurbishment, including the strip out of the existing Turkish bath and installation of new leisure suite facility including steam room and sauna, replacement of ventilation plant within the main pool and changing room areas and also incorporated heating and domestic water services.
The electrical services design comprised new sub main distribution, lighting throughout the building, power and fire alarm installation.
The project comprised significant asbestos removal works managed as part of the project, including the implementation of all relevant Health and Safety Leglislation.
The website of Pinnacle ESP Ltd, the company about to be appointed by Lewisham Council to perform an intrusive survey of Forest Hill Pools has this page on another leisure project commissioned some time ago by Lewisham Council.
The page about the refurbishment of the Ladywell Leisure Centre makes us aware of the brief that the Council gave them in 2002 and one element sticks out like a sore thumb for its inconsistency with the various answers to our questions at Council about the closure of the Turkish Bath at Ladywell.
We now come to know that Lewisham Council had commissioned a new facility to replace the existent Turkish Bath but had at some point decided not to bring this to completion.
This is not consistent with what we had been told by Lewisham Council when we asked about it last year:
LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM
COUNCIL MEETING 18 MAY 2005
Question
At the re-opening of the Ladywell Leisure Centre in June 2004 the Sauna and the Turkish Bath were not anymore available to the public. What was the reason behind the decision of not providing these facilities anymore?"
Reply
When the Ladywell Leisure Centre was closed, the opportunity was taken to survey the Turkish Baths. There had been ongoing maintenance difficulties with the steam area. Unfortunately, it was found that the facility could not be repaired and would need complete replacement. The Council was not able to identify funding for this investment at the time and therefore reluctantly had to close the Turkish bath suite.
However, the Council does offer sauna facilities at two of its other leisure centres - Wavelengths and The Bridge and plans to provide steam and sauna facilities in the new centre on the Sundermead estate.
The website of Pinnacle ESP Ltd also puts this job firmly within the available £1.8 m budget available.
But though the installation of new leisure suite facility including steam room and sauna never happened Lewisham Council still managed to spend the whole of the available budget.
This is the breakdown of the refurbishment of the Ladywell Leisure Centre that we had from a request under the FoI made by Cllr Milton:
Ladywell Leisure Centre - Asbestos Removal and Refurbishment Cost Breakdown
The information proffered below constitutes the envisaged final account for the asbestos removal and reinstatement works carried out at Ladywell Leisure Centre.
Total Project Cost
Main Body of Works = £1,833,340.49 (includes retention monies still being held)
Electrical Certification Works = £ 68,840.72 **(includes retention monies still being held)
Total = £1,902,181.21
** It should be noted that the electrical certification works would have been carried out anyway and were being funded from a separate source. Indeed, it was during the course of the initial stages of this work that the asbestos problem in the roof was revealed.
Breakdown of Cost by Project Element
Asbestos Works (Phase 1) £ 478,059.99 (inclusive of professional fees)
Reinstatement Works (Phase 2) £ 1,201,726.75 (inclusive of professional fees)
Heating Remedial Works (Phase 3) £ 153,553.75
Electrical Certification Works £ 68,840.72
What's gone wrong between the commissioning and the ending of the work?
Has the Council incurred a great overspend and decided to drop the new leisure suite with sauna and steam room?
And how big an overspend can that be that compromises such a job?
Maybe a clue can be found in this other answer given to us at another Council meeting:
...read more...LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM
COUNCIL MEETING 26 OCTOBER 2005
Question
How much has the Council paid the Ladywell Leisure Centre contractors for loss of income generated by the closure of the Sauna and Turkish Bath since those facilities closed?
Reply
The sauna has been closed since 1999, therefore no loss of income payments have been made to the Contractor. Since the site re opened in June 2004 a total of £90,790 has been paid, up until August 2005, in respect of the Turkish Baths Suite.
Supplementary Information
The cost of reinstating the Turkish bath and Sauna would certainly exceed the sum shown above. No detailed costings were obtained, but informed estimates put the sum at between £350k- £400k.
Minority Report reconsidered
...Philip Peake (Lib Dem - Forest Hill) is Chair of the all-important Overview and Scrutiny Committee. One of his first acts was to agree to a special meeting of the committee to consider the minority report on the decision to build a new school on the Ladywell Leisure Centre...
From Cllr Andrew Milton's website we come to know that the Minority Report on Ladywell will be freed from captivity and will soon be discussed by Overview and Scrutiny.
This would probably not have happened if the Labour Party had held its majority at Council. ...read more...
Lewisham awarded funds for "everyday swim" project!
Thanks to the South London Press for flagging the audacity of Lewisham Council.
You can be sure that as long as there is some funding to get, Lewisham Council will apply for it, even at cost of looking like fools.
And as long as there's one swimming pool left in Lewisham they can ask for money for swimming.
We found the page of the Amateur Swimming Association that announces the shortlisted Councils and here's what they've been awarded money for:
Lewisham (London): addressing issues facing black and minority ethnic communities, 10 –19 year olds and older people, based initially on a single facility
Very noble. Bucket anyone?
As the South London Press suggests:
...read more...People will participate more in swimming if their local pool is kept open.
The dream team
Steve Bullock announced his Cabinet and with it he also makes a bold statement.Now we're all "customers".
Yes, that's what you are, a customer, and if you have any complaint you'll have to speak with the "Customer Services" led by Cllr Susan Wise.
Oh no, sorry, we misread, it seems that after all there are also other people allegedly in charge of other things and "Customer Services" is only a new fancy name for "Housing".
Somebody's feeling disoriented?
Well, surely some of these 7 cabinet members must be.
There used to be 9 of them but now the number has been reduced and oddly, those that we thought were already too busy are now getting even more jobs.
The previous deputy Mayor for example was also in charge of regeneration.
Now Cllr Heidi Alexander that gets the job of Deputy Mayor will also follow regeneration, but as if that wasn't enough, she'll also be in charge of Environment.
Poor girl, she'll have to give up on sleeping and eating for the next 4 years or she won't be able to follow all that's going around in her multiple portfolio of portfolios.
There used to be a Cabinet member for Adult Care and Health. That job is no more.
Helth seems to have been completely dropped, Adult Care gets a slight renaming and will instead be brought forward by Cllr Chris Best that as member for Community Services will follow adult social services, libraries, arts and leisure services.
Do you need to speak to her? Hurry up and book an appointment now. With a job like that there's probably another 1000 people that need to speak to her too.
Then there are the straightfoward jobs as one would expect them to be.
There is a new post of Champion for Older People that goes to Cllr Peggy Fitzsimmons.
Cllr Helen Klier is in charge of Resources. Cllr Robert Massey is member for Children and Young People, Cllr Crada Onuegbu remains in charge of Community Safety (feeling relieved by this last bit of news?).
As for the previous cabinet none of them get to vote for the Council's decisions.
This is a "Directly Elected Executive Mayor" borough and there's no voting or other funny business here, Steve knows all that's best for you.
That's why he needs only 7 people to help him keeping track of all that the Council does.
It also frees up another couple of Councillors that can go and attend Overview and Scrutiny and defend his decisions from eventual opposition's criticisms.
With a group of only 26 Councillors Labour can't afford to have too many of them disqualified from O&S because members of a non-voting cabinet. ...read more...
Mayor's offer for Cabinet seats refused
...Barrie has declined Steve Bullocks kind offer. The Conservatives will continue to hold the Mayor and cabinet to account from the backbenches.
It is with great satisfaction that we register that the Mayor's attempt to woo opposition members into his Cabinet has been unsuccessful.
Last week's News Shopper reported a possible agreement between the Mayor and the conservative member Cllr Anderson that would have seen him taking on the role of Cabinet member for Resources.
Fortunately this agreement has not been reached and the opposition will be able to fulfill its mandate to hold the mayor to scrutiny thanks to its still intact situation of majority at Council. ...read more...
Divide and rule
...read more...News Shopper - I will not back down:
...Mayor Steve Bullock is set to include councillors from rival parties in his new-look cabinet.
News Shopper understands the mayor has approached Grove Park Conservative councillor Barrie Anderson, to be the new cabinet member for resources...
...The Lib Dems and Greens both ruled out joining the cabinet but Cllr Anderson said he would consider an approach if it was made.
Numbers crunching
Here's a bit of number crunching on the Mayoral election.A first consideration is that the number of voters has significantly increased compared to 4 years ago.
In 2002 there were only 44518 first preference votes cast. This data has risen this year to 58700 and that's a 31.85% increase.
Steve Bullock's share of first preference votes falls from 44.95% in 2002 to just 37.68% today.
His share of the second preferences also diminished going from a healthy 27.32% registered in 2002 to a meagre 12.31% today.
Though first and second preferences are added to determine the final result this is a bit like adding apples and pears.
With their first preference vote people express who they would like be the next Mayor.
The second preference vote is a vote for somebody that, though not your favorite, is one that you wouldn't mind seeing as Mayor.
Steve Bullock's fall in second preferences can therefore be read as a fall in popularity among non-Labour voters.
This should alarm him as it means that his vote is composed mostly by loyal "tribal" Labour voters and indicates a narrowing of his approval base.
How will Steve Bullock respond to this?
Will he dig his heels and ignore the majority that voted for somebody else and expressed a Council where his party is in minority?
We hope that Steve Bullock will want to start a new chapter for Lewisham and accepting that we're not anymore a one party state decides to take into consideration other people's opinions on how to make Lewisham the best place to work, live and learn.
Click here for the full analysis of the vote. ...read more...
Farewell Andrew Brown
One electoral casualty on the Labour front is Andrew Brown, we linked to his blog from our permanent links bar as he deserved it.As member of the cabinet he very bravely kept and online diary of his job as a councillor where comments and open discussion were allowed to happen in public.
He was also the only Labour councillor to ever attend one of our public meetings.
A great opponent, we loved to disagree with him and we're sure that he lost his seat only for the company he kept. ...read more...
A minority Mayor
Steve Bullock managed to get re-elected but it cost him the majority.With only a 26-strong Labour minority group at Council Steve Bullock is looking at a very different picture from that of 4 years ago when 45 Labour Councillors represented an impenetrable barrier that sheltered him from any possibility of democratic scrutiny to affect his decisions.
Ladywell Pool played a decisive role in these elections.
In all the wards in the catchment area of the pool Labour registered great losses.
It held only in Rushey Green and Catford South but has been completely expelled from Ladywell (now completely Green), Brockley (now completely Green), LeeGreen (now completely Libdem), Blackheath (now completely Libdem). In Lewisham Central Labour loses another seat in favour of Libdems that have now two Councillors.
Forest Hill Pools was another big issue as Labour lost all Councillors there in favour of the Libdems.
What this entails is all to be seen.
We have an executive Mayor system where in theory he still can take all decisions without having to listen to anybody, but that's only the theory, in reality a minority Mayor could mean that accountability must be re-introduced and a reversal of the decision on Ladywell can therefore become very realistic.
Can he claim to have the people's support on this decision when in the area affected Labour has been kindly shown out?
Can he reasonably claim to be entitled to take decisions on his own when he won with the 36.8% of votes and a minority group at council? ...read more...
Minority Report - For Your Eyes Only
The Sub-committee that the Overview and Scrutiny panel set up last summer to look at the background of the decision to build a school on the land occupied by the Ladywell Leisure Centre did an excellent probing work during its seven meetings.With its questioning it uncovered incredible stories, like that of a Mayor and his team of top officers and cabinet members asking millions of funding to Treasury and not knowing what they were asking them for because nobody had read the papers.
It was therefore with dismay, that we realized that the person in charge of writing the report with the conclusions of this sub-committee works, was the Chief Executive.
Unsurprisingly the report that he wrote is lacking some bite to say the least and at the last meeting of the sub-committee it was only 'noted' but not approved.
One of the members, Cllr Julia Fletcher didn't even take part in the vote to avoid glorifying the nonsense by actually taking notice of it as she was asked to do.
She and Cllr Helen LeFevre expressed their intention to write a minority report and officers present at the meeting confirmed that they could indeed do so.
So they did and they did a great job that makes compelling reading.
They then sent it to all the Council members.
Immediately the Legal Office of Lewisham Council stepped in and decided that this minority report could not be shown to the public or even discussed at meetings until they decide so because it may contain information of a defamatory of confidential nature.
This minority report is currently still held by them and all bets are on it staying there until after the elections.
It is therefore with immense pride that we announce that this minority report is available from this website from the link below.
It's the report that the Council doesn't want you to see.
Isn't that exciting?
Please download it, read it, give it to friends, help in making it as public as possible.
It's been checked by lawyers and there's nothing libelous or unlawful in it.
This version differs from that given to Councillors only in a few minor changes that do not affect the content of it.
This was done to prevent any possible legal challenge from Lewisham Council.
Download the Minority Report - pdf 66k.
Download the Foreword to the Minority Report - pdf 28k. ...read more...
Alyson's Wonderland
At last Wednesday's Council Meeting we asked the Cabinet Member for Culture Cllr Alyson McGarrigle to explain why Lewisham Council had decided to close the Ladywell Leisure Centre without consulting the public.In her reply Cllr McGarrigle wrote that:
"Local residents had already been consulted on the possibility of closing the Ladywell pool and relocating it elsewhere in the Town Centre prior to the decision to build a new school on the site.
The decision to nominate the Ladywell Leisure Centre site as the preferred location of the new school was taken by Mayor and Cabinet on 30th June, 2004. It would have been disingenuous for the Council to enter into any further formal consultation on the issue."
For this answer to have some resemblance of truth, please subsitute the word never to already in the first paragraph and honest to disingenuous in the second.
This matter of the Council's pretense that the people of Lewisham was asked their opinion has already been the subject of many questions at Council, requests under the Freedom of Information act and research in the local archives.
The consultation that McGarrigle probably refers to was done by Lewisham Council in the year 2000 and was a squalid and fortunately failed attempt to stitch up the residents with having a police station built instead of the local swimming pool.
The cover sheet of the consultation paper that Lewisham Council sent to the residents specifically stated that the residents were consulted in order to know what they wanted in a new leisure centre and not, as McGarrigle says in her unbelievable answer at last week's meeting, on the possibility of closing the Ladywell pool and relocating it elsewhere in the Town Centre.
That consultation questionnaire had indeed one question asking people if they would find it acceptable to have a gap between the closure of the Ladywell Leisure Centre and the opening of the new one and 63% of the consulted said no.
Read here the full results of that consultation.
At the time sport and Leisure was already under Cllr McGarrigle responsibility.
We researched the matter and here is a timeline of the events that 6 years ago, under the leadership of Cllr McGarrigle, unfolded in front of the horrified residents of Lewisham:
22 February 2000 Consultation sent out
06 March 2000 Closing date for responses
08 March 2000 The Mercury reports its had calls from Ladywell users concerned about the haste.
12 March 2000 Council sent letters to residents of Rombough Way & Gardens plus allotment holders giving them till the end of the month to respond to an outline planning application to demolish the Leisure Centre and build a police station.
13 March 2000 Results of consultation given at a public meeting.
22 March 2000 The Mercury reports on the public meeting:
....the audience were told a planning application to build a police station on the site of the Leisure centre could lead to an "opportunity" to create a better pool replacement somewhere in the town centre. Council officials at the the meeting accepted that insufficient questionnares had been distributed about getting a new leisure centre for Lewisham, and they've pledged to reconvene the meeting as soon as more comments have been sought and received.05 April 2000 The Mercury has picture of protesters outside the leisure centre with almost 1,000 names on a petition, along with bundles of letters opposing the demolition of the building.
24 May 2000 The Mercury reports on the Met police director of property services Trevor Lawrence saying:
"The Ladywell site is too small, its boundaries are not secure as it is too close to houses, there has been a petition of more than 1,000 signatures against developing it, and we still have no confirmation that the site is available."
If the police was not supporting the plan for a police station on the pool site, who was it that submitted the planning application?
That planning application was withdrawn and everybody thought that the pool was safe.
Still the Council kept on trying to evict the allotment holders for quite some time.
Read here what Cllr McGarrigle wrote to them in November 2000.
...4 years later:
20 October 2004 Mayor Bullock writes:
"The decision to relocate Ladywell Leisure Centre to the Sundermead estate was taken following a public consultation in late 1999. The consultation meeting was well attended, with strong support for relocation and modernisation of the facilities"
...2 more years later:
...read more...1 February 2006 Chief Executive Barry Quirk CBE writes in his report to Overview and Scrutiny:
"...the conflation of school and pool issues needs to be avoided if the adequacy of consultation is to be assessed. Consultation on both issues has been adequate."
The Last Urban Renaissance
Last week Urban Renaissance held its final Forum.The budget's run out and this one was the last meeting with the community to inform and discuss the development around the Sundermead site, where also the promised state-of-the-art leisure centre is supposed to be built.
This time we expected to see some content to fill the Mayor's promise.
Elections are coming and we hoped that some positive surprise to diffuse the tension around the proposed closure of the pool might have been unveiled.
What we heard instead was that the works at Sundermead are already about one year behind schedule and that a leisure centre could eventually be built after the rest of the development is done - that means starting works in 2011 at the earliest, but there is no plan for it yet.
We also heard that there are no changes in the plan to provide a replacement for Ladywell that's 25% smaller that Ladywell Pool and this in spite of the substantial increase in population that the Town Centre development will bring in.
The Council's experts present at the forum didn't have a figure for that but agreed with us that a ballpark figure of 2,500 new residents could be a realistic forecast.
To this figure you have to add the staff and students of Lewisham College that is also due to relocate to the new development as well as staff of any additional retail or office space included in the development.
A smaller facility for an increased population. ...read more...