media
The great press review
The diary page of today's Guardian reports to the nation on some hilarious spin offs and follow ups to the end of our campaign that have entertained Lewisham in the past few weeks.
When, last May, Labour's control of Lewisham council ended after 35 years, it was widely assumed that the slump in support for Mr Tony's men was due in no small part to a bitter battle over the fate of the popular Ladywell baths, which Labour mayor Steve Bullock was hellbent on demolishing to make way for a new school, and residents were determined to keep. Despite swearing that he would "not be changing his mind", Cllr Bullock last month did, announcing that the pool would stay open, the school would be built elsewhere, and that this was, of course, "the result I was always striving for". The Save Ladywell Pool Campaign, he added magnanimously, was "a great example of how local people can get their views heard". Oddly, the mayor told Time Out that the campaign, led by "a very small group of backward-looking people", was "pathetic". Presumably to put an end to all this confusion, the front page of Lewisham Labour Action now proudly proclaims: "Mayor Saves Ladywell Pool." Fancy that!
Here's a link to the tactfully entitled "Mayor Saves Ladywell Pool" Labour Party leaflet and here instead you can read the News Shopper article clarifying what particular manoeuvre of the Mayor did it.
Here's instead a link to the article on the Time Out magazine published on the same day of the decision to keep Ladywell Pool open where the Mayor declared that the campaign is erm...pathetic.
We finish this press review with a picture of a group of campaigners on the front page of the Mercury with the wonderful title "it's job done".
Wikipedia updates on Bullock!
...After an undistinguished first term, including some distinctly undemocratic decisions in the case of for example Ladywell Pool, he was surprisingly re-elected in 2006.
Search for Steve Bullock on the Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia and you'll get a short article ending with the above paragraph.
Take a look now, it may not last for long. ...read more...
BBC Radio 4 on Lewisham elections...and Ladywell Pool
Last night, Monday 24th April 2006, at 10 pm the popular BBC Radio 4 program 'The World tonight' broadcast a 6:58 minute feature on Lewisham and the likelihood of a new Mayor in Lewisham.Listen to the recording of the program here.
The feature on Lewisham starts after 19:30 minutes. ...read more...
Lewisham Pools in the Private Eye
The 'Nooks and Corner' column examines in detail the events surrounding Forest Hill Pools and the unacceptable neglect that forced its recent closure after an Health and Safety inspector found decayed wood in the truss holding the glass roof above the pool in spite of works done to it in 1999.
After Forest Hill the Eye goes on to give an overview of the trouble with swimming in England touching on some of the biggest disasters, like the Clissold Leisure Centre in Hackney before returning to Lewisham and mentioning Ladywell Pool to explain why pools are "not safe in the borough council's hands".
If you want to read the full article you will have to buy the Private Eye (£1.40).
You'll also be able to read what the current issue of Private Eye writes about Bridget Prentice MP.
In the meantime you can read what the Private Eye wrote about her in the previous issue. ...read more...The Politics Show
"1 in 5 children reach secondary school, age 11, without being able to swim 1 single length.
In one borough in London it's reported to be 6 out of 10.That's a disgrace!"Duncan Goodhew at the Politics Show on BBC1, Sunday 2nd April
Guess which one is the London Borough where 6 out of 10 children can't swim by the time they reach secondary school.
You're right, it's Lewisham!
It'll be available for the rest of the week for online viewing from this link. ...read more...
The Swiss Cottage pool non-option
Via: Ham & HighHam & High - Camden News - Back in the swim at Swiss:
...The 25-metre competition-length pool is smaller than the original 33-yard metre pool.
Last month the council announced its £175 swim cards will no longer be available from April 1.
The cheapest membership deal will instead be the £480 Wellness scheme...
This week, north of the river, the new Swiss Cottage Pool opens its doors to the public and where once stood an airy and spacious swimming pool and sports centre now stands a mixed development.
A library, a theatre, a small swimming pool and 169 flats.
This is remarkably similar to what Lewisham Council plans to build as part of the redevelopment of the Town Centre and what our outgoing Mayor is trying to sell us as a good reason to give up on Ladywell.
In Swiss Cottage there used to be a 33 mt pool and a larger teaching pool.
Now there is a smaller teaching pool and a 25 mt. pool.
This is exactly what Lewisham Council plans to build to replace Ladywell!
With this new sports centre at Swiss Cottage, Camden Council even plans to make a profit on its leisure provision.
The Ham and High also tells us that:
...Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), which took over the contract to manage Camden's leisure centres last April, will split profits beyond a target level with the council...
What is this? Racketeering?
What looks remarkably like a private sports centre with fees in line with the private sector has to split its profits with the local authority.
...Ben Dixon from GLL said: "Gym machines are very popular. It is no secret that the gym helps us subsidise the rest of the costs of the centre.
"This does help us offset offering our other facilities cheaply for community use."
Less swimming pool, more gym machines.
The people of Camden now have a smaller facility that cannot cater for the community and there isn't any need to keep it affordable because it's so small that there will always be enough well off people willing to pay good money to use it.
This is exactly the same clever scheme that Lewisham Council's eggheads came up with in 1999 and they are still trying to implement it.In Camden this is now a reality.
We must not allow this to happen here! ...read more...
Candidates pledge pool support
The News Shopper | Features and Special Reports | Candidates pledge pool support:
Lewisham mayoral candidates are pledging their support to the Save Ladywell Pool campaign.
Reporter SAMANTHA PAYNE spoke to them about their plans for the pool if they win the elections...
The News Shopper reports on the real chance that the people of Lewisham has to keep the Ladywell Leisure Centre open.
Whatever your political idea, you can vote for a candidate that will keep the pool open.
Thoroughly Good on Ladywell Pool
There's a new radio station in Lewisham.Focusing on local issues Catford resident Jon Jacob produces his own radio program and makes it available as a podcast to the world on his website Thoroughly Good Radio.
We discovered it after reading about it on the News Shopper and found it compelling listening - as all good local things we gave it a permanent link on our website.
This week's Thoroughly Good feature is all about the Save Ladywell Pool Campaign.
Jon interviews campaign secretary Max Calo' as well as London Pools Campaign coordinator Liz Hughes and Mary Paul for the New School Campaign.
He also tries to speak to somebody at Lewisham Council...
Click on the link, sit back and listen to this 32 minutes long feature. ...read more...
What is he up to?
This week BBC is promoting its BBC Action Network service and focuses on local campaigns.As part of the BBC Action Network week, Save Ladywell Pool campaign secretary Max Calo', keeps a diary of a week in the life of a campaigner and there's no doubt that he needs all the help that he can get.
This week you can help him deliver some of the 20,000 leaflets and consultation questionnaires asking Lewisham residents their opinion on the closure of the pool.
Take a look at Max's life here. ...read more...
Rolf on water
"Every day in February, the BBC website Magazine is featuring a classic public information film from the past 60 years, concluding with a vote to find the nation's favourite.
Today's film is unusual among those we will be featuring in this series. No special effects, no animation, no hard sell, no comedy - it's just Rolf Harris, in a swimming pool, being the voice of commonsense" [LINK]
My life in the deep end - by Duncan Goodhew
Yesterday's Evening Standard gave its central double page to Duncan Goodhew.In this beautiful article he tells us all about his passion for swimming, why he doesn't have hair and why we should all fight to keep our local swimming pools.
We scanned it and saved it as a pdf (1.4 Mb) for you to download and read. ...read more...
London's 2012 hopefuls let down by 'nutty situation'
A great piece in the Evening Standard that tells the truth about the cowshed that is Crystal Palace as well as how much work swimmers and parents have to do getting to pools before they even swim a stroke. It doesn't mention that the times that operators make available to clubs are often 'latish' for school children.Duncan Goodhew carries on the good fight while coaches from across the city have a say. [LINK]
Of course the line will be trotted out that swimmers will be able to use the new Aquatic Centre in Stratford after it opens but picture the average parent getting in from work and then popping from Camden Road to Stratford on a Thursday night.
N.B. Crystal Palace is Londons's top pool because it is on a hill
Self wants to swim!
"...there's little thrill to be had in watching some Australian's immaculate crawl, if the only way you can practise the stroke is by lying down over a kitchen chair..."
In today's Evening Standard the ever excellent Will Self gives a good summary of down-to-earth no-nonsense approach to the debate about swimming.
We must send a copy of this to Mayor Bullock!
He was so excited at the news that we'll have the Olympics in London that he forgot that he's pulling down the local pool. ...read more...
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...
The Guardian: Swimming pools should be a policy battleground
Swimming pools should be a policy battleground:
"This is the season of fresh resolutions, many of them adopted to deal with with bulging waistlines and that non-specific blobby feeling you may recognise after the Christmas break. Like many women I will be soon ploughing up and down a swimming pool. Like many parents I will also be watching children swim - my daughters in fact. Swimming is the single most popular sport for girls and the second most popular for boys.It is also a good test case for the government's wider commitment to sport..."
In this excellent article on today's Guardian Jackie Hashley reminds politicians that swimming pools are indeed important and that adequate policies are required to convince voters that there's any substance behind the huge hot air exercise that followed the successful Olympic bid.
In Lewisham the outgoing Mayor Steve Bullock thinks that the way forward is to insult the public's intelligence by declaring commitment to modernising leisure centres while closing the only swimming pool in central Lewisham leaving the best part of the borough without swimming pool for a number of years that is everyone's guess. ...read more...
Swimmers left high and dry by neglected pools
Telegraph | Sport | Swimmers left high and dry by neglected pools:
"...Hackney Council are desperate to re-open before local elections next May but it is more likely to be late next summer, 10 years since the original baths were closed.
What happened in Hackney should be studied by all local authorities who are contemplating destroying some of our older and well-built pools to produce 'modern' facilities..."
(Via The Telegraph.)
As in Kentish Town another one of London's neglected pools is threatened with closure, Kate Hoey Mp warns Camden of what sorry tale unfolded in nearby Hackney.
We strongly recommend Mayor Bullock to read the Telegraph this morning. ...read more...
Swimming pool rescue for bullock
...read more...BBC NEWS - Swimming pool rescue for bullock:
...Resident Leanne Jones, 28, returned from work after her mother called, frantic about the unwanted guest in the pool.
"We were very, very shocked to see him there. We think he was there for a few hours all together.
"He was swimming around the shallow end so he definitely earned his 50m badge. I think half of the village turned up to see it all."...
...Abercarn station officer Derwyn Jones said he had never dealt with an incident like it in his 31 years with the fire service.
"We've dealt with sheep, horses and dogs in swimming pools but never cows or bullocks.
"Between us all we managed to get the bullock out quite easily...he looked quite happy in there."
A spokesman for the RSPCA said: "Very often we get calls about cows going into rivers or falling down cliffs but this is highly unusual".
What next for councils of despair?
The Times Online - What next for councils of despair?:"SOMETHING IS ROTTEN in the state of local government. Just two and a half years after the reforms of the Local Government Act 2000 completely transformed the way town halls operate, furious voices are being raised...
...Now councillors are paid and officers make decisions. The Act was lobbied for by those who would gain most: senior officers who would get enhanced power and prestige to justify salary increases; senior councillors who would get generous salaries and pension rights in place of their meagre attendance allowances; and private industry supplying local councils who would gain from an accelerated privatisation policy.
They worked together in organisations such as the New Local Government Network of “senior local government figures” working with the private sector ( “corporate partners”) and seeking to “transform local services"...
(Via The Times Online.)
This article is a must read.
Every word speaks of Lewisham.
Thanks to Cllr Andrew Brown for bringing our attention to it. ...read more...BBC features Save Ladywell Pool Campaign
BBC - Action Network - Making waves to save our pool: Lewisham Council has publicly backed the Olympic bid, at the same time as backing the closure of the only sports facility in the centre of the borough. If there was a gold medal for hypocrisy then they would win it. In the run up to the Olympics we should be promoting sport and encouraging people to embrace fitness."
This week's BBC Action Network feature article focuses on campaign secretary Max Calò and explores last year's events with an eye on the future developments.
Lewisham Online
There's a new site on the net, it's all about Lewisham and we love it.
And not just because it lists us as one of Lewisham's top ten blogs.
Before its recent revamp, Lewisham Council's website used to have a directory of community websites, but that's gone now.
Three local community webmasters, mourning the loss decided that something had to be done.
Lewisham Online is intended to grow into a one-stop shop for Lewisham's non-commercial websites. ...read more...
Why not splash out on swimming?
The Times columnist and Southwark resident Janice Turner wrote an inspired article that expresses very eloquently what everybody's thinking and policy-makers are ignoring.Janice Turner - The Times Online: "...excellent, local and affordable sport made the duty of every council, as it is in France could transform our porky offspring faster than an army of Jamie Olivers. It would reduce youth crime more effectively than 10,000 ASBOs. And, for those glory-seekers in government, it would throw millions more contenders into the pool of talent from which we choose our 2012 Olympic team..."
(Via The Times.) ...read more...
Olympics in London in 2012
BBC SPORT | London beats Paris to 2012 Games: "The 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London, the International Olympic Committee has announced..."
...and swimmers from Lewisham must be given a chance to take part to it. ...read more...
School Academies and Government targets
EducationGuardian.co.uk | Blow to academy scheme as school sponsor pulls out: "There are 17 academies but the government has pledged to establish 200 of them by 2010. In return for a £2m cash contribution - which then attracts £23m of taxpayers' money - the private sector sponsors also get considerable control over the running of a school and its curriculum. Last month Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough became the first to be declared failing, just three years after opening."
This article in today's Guardian explains in a nutshell what these City Academies project is about.
As we see, this scheme is not void of dangers.
To start Lewisham will not have a new secondary by 2006.
As a community, we are also asked to do our bit to help the Government achieve its targets by giving away our flagship leisure centre.
The Mayor of Lewisham - though fully knowing that a replacement will not materialize for a number of years after the demolition of the Ladywell Leisure Centre - is bullying the Government's will on us all.
(Via The Guardian.) ...read more...
Sky Sport from Ladywell
On Monday 25th, Sky Sport recorded two interviews from the Ladywell Leisure Centre.The first guest was the Secretary of our campaign Max Calò.
The other guest was the Mayor of Lewisham Steve Bullock.
The program will be broadcast next week.
We'll post here the details of the broadcast as soon as we receive them. ...read more...
London's Olympic dream in tatters
"London's chances of securing votes from the 117 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were hampered by the government's perceived under-investment in sport and Britain's broken promise to hold this year's World Athletics Championships."
(Via http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/.)
Lord Coe is laughing it off. But if it came out to be true, that the under-investment in sport facilities had cost London the olympic bid, that would be a slap on the wrist of planetary proportions. Would, in that case, the government and the other funding bodies turn this into a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in facilities for popular sports?...read more...
Deptford Park Campaign covered by BBC
BBC NEWS | England | London | Fight to stop park building plan: ""Campaigners have vowed to continue their fight against plans to build houses in a park, despite the council granting developers permission.
(Via http://www.deptfordpark.com.)
We strongly believe in the reasons of the Save Deptford Park campaign.
...read more...
