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Page 3 of 5 As ever the wheels of council bureaucracy kept turning slowly and this decision did not get carried to the demolition contractors. Shortly after this decision was made we were informed at short notice that the bulldozer would be at the Lido 7am the next morning. A small group of us turned up just in time to stand in front of the bulldozer and stop the demolition, while another one of us chased off to get a local Councillor, Tony Allen to confirm the new council decision with the council officers and contractor. It was a very close call. In the summer of 1992 a team led by Strategic Leisure Ltd. was appointed by LBH to carry out a consultancy study into the Lido. The team consisted of: Strategic Leisure Ltd. (management consultants); Gibson Hamilton Partnership (architects); Hoare Lea & Partners (consulting mechanical & electrical engineers); Brian Moorhead & Partners (consulting structural engineers) and Gardiner & Theobald (quantity surveyors). The feasibility study and report, costing over £9000, was completed for August 1992. Later that year an ugly corrugated iron fence was erected all around the empty Lido. This remained for many years despite our protestation. The London Fields Lido sub-committee not satisfied with the procrastination of the council continued with the campaign. By 1994 they started collecting signatures on another petition for the re-opening of the Olympic size open-air swimming pool. In August a stall on Ridley Market, all decked out with pictures of swimmers and pools, balloons and swimming paraphernalia attracted many signatures. The stall was kindly given for the day by the Ridley Road Traders Association. Over 500 signatures were collected making a total of over 1000 signatures at the beginning of this campaign. The total of signatures grew and grew but to no avail. In 1996 further government funding cuts reduced available money in parks down from £3 million p.a. 5 years before, down to £1.9 million. Parks and leisure facilities not being statutory became the first to loose funding. All this time the sub-committee was looking into alternative ways to finance this facility, outside of council control; all the development plans and proposals were turned down. Some children were using the nearby canal as an alternative open air pool in summer with the threat of catching Wiles disease. This valuable facility was still under threat of being destroyed. Eventually, we managed to extract a promise not to destroy what exists of the Lido We went out and did a survey of local opinion and got a "thumbs up" from almost everyone. We had won the battle against the bulldozers and a halt on its destruction until an alternative plan could be produced. The results of the feasibility study confirmed the integrity and substantial quality of the basic buildings. The basic tank of the pool was pronounced to be solid with just the expansion joints between the three base slabs requiring re-corking with new mastic. We wanted to completely refurbish the Lido, making a lively multi-purpose complex. Giving it heated water; a fold out roof enclosure for the pool in winter or bad weather; possibly Solar Heating and a Sauna; a weight training gym; a hall for aerobics; a cafeteria and taking in the grassed area with trees to the West of the Lido to have a further sunbathing area with picnic tables. Among our many contacts we had support for various sport uses, including a sub-aqua club, canoeing, water aerobics and water polo. Peter Stechman, who has great experience in the management of swimming pools in Camden and was a pool campaigner, assisted our Lido sub-committee, to produce a working programme for it's reopening. He came all the way from South West London to our meetings. Carol Drummond played a major role in co-ordinating the support for the pool and sent out hundreds of letters, to bring support, offers of pool plant spares, proposals, architectural plans and drawings. In 1997 it became known that Hackney had benefited from a windfall from the National Lottery Sports Grants, potentially of several million over 2 years. Councillor Peter Snell notified us that this money had to be bid for and that we would have to get our ideas together fast to stand a chance of a Sports and Leisure development in London Fields. And so a meeting was called for January 7th. Peter Snell was responsible for most of the organisation and chaired the meeting. The meeting was called to present the ideas of the London Fields User Group and its Lido sub-committee for sports and leisure development in the Park. Also, we had in mind the needs for local schools and other young people for better sports facilities. We wished to present these to as many local people as possible and hear their responses and comments. It was well attended with 30 members of the public, Councillors Peter Snell, Neil Hughes, Chris O'Leary and Philip Pearson, plus council officers Michael Gabe (Area Parks and Amenities Manager), Shaun Dawson (Assistant Director Education and Leisure), Ian Morgan (Parks Co-ordinator). Peter Stechman, our pool expert attended. In 18th Feb. 1997 another Public Meeting was called to support our bid. We had over 30 people attending. Ken Belton the consultant assisting in the Lottery Bid attended and gave us a realistic assessment of the possibilities for gaining what we wanted. The User Group gave full voice to the details of what we required from the Bid. We were informed that the Lido, in the existing economic climate, is most unlikely to achieve a positive bid, even with all the plans and improvements that have been proposed. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with both support from other groups and clubs and further proposals for this unique facility. Again we got nowhere. |
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