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Page 5 of 5 By Aug. 1998 the Lido, which has been empty for 10 years and cleaned up by the community, then got squatted. Taking advantage of the community's hard voluntary work they lived in the changing rooms, using the Lido as an Entertainment Venue, charging at the gate. With amplified music, coloured lights, food and drinks for sale. A leaflet for one of these raves stated an entry charge to benefit "Reclaim the Streets". The handful of people actually living in the Lido (5 or 6 only) appeared to be merely a front for the people organising this Profitable Venue. The interior was certainly not how as we left it. We were informed of the poor state that the Lido has got into since the squatters broke in and how buddleia has started to grow from the remaining root stumps, with piles of empty cans around from the raves. Some of the squatters came along to our meeting. They assured the meeting that they did not want to destroy community property and supported its refurbishment. With the squatters in occupation at the Lido, the license giving to the User Group greater control of the facility could not be used by us for community events and was lost. By 1999, with all our efforts worrying the council to see progress, the council had proposed another feasibility study. Matthew Lloyd, of Matthew Lloyd Architects, represented one of the groups of people who made a bid to act as Consultants for this Feasibility Study for the regeneration and development of London Fields. Another bidder was Jon Aldenton of The Environmental Trust. They were our preferred bidders as they both wanted to have full consultation with local people and users, and they had come to our meetings previously informing us of their projects. Unfortunately like previous development plans for London Fields this Feasibility Study was not consummated. We are told that there is still money reserved for this study but somehow there is a lack of will to make a decisive decision to proceed. Now Matthew Lloyd offers to speculatively produce plans and ideas in cooperation with The Environmental Trust for the future development of London Fields (including the Lido which is such an important part of this future for us). They are also skilled in obtaining funding from all diverse sources, from Europe to the private sector. The Environment Trust had been responsible in this way for the development of the Mile End Park. A development that has been widely commended as an imaginative transformation, based upon the ideas and initiative of the local people and users. We were delighted at the offer. We were invited to hold a discussion with Matthew Lloyd Architects and The Environmental Trust. Mike, Lynda and Paul represented the User Group and Matthew Lloyd and Jon Aldenton made their presentation. Their proposal was to go into Partnership with the User Group for a Feasibility Study for the regeneration and development of London Fields including the Lido, with full consultation with local people and users, but on a speculative basis. We were told of the various imaginative projects they had both been involved with and how they were willing to begin negotiations with various officers in Hackney and possible sources of funding the project. We held a meeting of the User Group to discus these proposals. After a short discussion the meeting unanimously agreed to this partnership. At this difficult juncture in time, this was the only positive proposal that could possibly bring regeneration and development to fruition. We had nothing to loose and everything we had been asking for to gain. Our proposed Focus groups could then become advisory groups in the developments. In April 2000, we were invited to a meeting by the council, held at Renaisi (the Hackney development agency). This was a meeting that that we had been trying to get organised for over a year, concerning the future development of London Fields. Mike and Lynda represented the User Group, with Jon Aldenton and Matthew Lloyd negotiating on our behalf with the council. We had a very positive meeting. Kevin Sugrue the head of Renaisi who offered support and said he would be willing to look for part funding of the Fields development, provided that we obtain permission from Hackney Council. We then had to arrange a joint meeting with Kevin Crompton the Director of Learning Leisure. On Friday 26th of May, Mike and Lynda attended a meeting called by our Partners Jon Aldenton and Matthew Lloyd. This was also attended by Danny Clark of Sport England, the lottery funding distributor; Christine Double the Project Manager of North and East London Sports Network; John Hodson of Renaisi and Andrew Westcott and Keith Hellen of Hackney Learning & Leisure. The meeting was called to discuss the possibility of using our Lido as a 50 metre training pool and obtain sports funding. We could not get into the pool directly but viewed it from above from the tower block nearby. Christine Double said that the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) had identified a national shortage of 50 metre training pools. There is not one left in the whole of the northeast London quadrant. We were told a few local authorities in the area were looking for funding to build a new 50 metre training pool from scratch for the proposed Olympics Games in London. Picketts Lock, on the River Lea at Edmonton, was one possible site for the London Olympics at the time; but had negative attributes with the reported dioxin fallout from the nearby Edmonton Incinerator. The Hackney Marsh area has been proposed as another possible site for the Olympics. Hackney had an Olympic sized pool and was doing nothing with it. Christine saw great potential in our Lido site but London Sports Network did not do funding, it only assists in the development of sports. Ken Livingston the new London Mayor at the time was said to be interested in the Lido for training as part of the proposed 2012 Olympic Bid for East London. Lynda had been investigating and comparing swimming facilities in the London Boroughs and had also been doing a survey on the transport connections to London Fields. This helped to place the meeting in a perspective. Showing London Fields to be in easy reached by bus and train from virtually any part of North and East London. This all reinforces the arguments to use the Lido as the North East London swimming training centre. The Hackney Council officers first told us that they were about to make an appraisal on the future development of the London Fields Lido. This, they said "would be a proper assessment this time". Knowing how we have been given the run around so often in the past we took this with a pinch of salt. Eventually they informed us that the reopening of the Lido would be raised on the 30th of May in a report about the possible closure of the Haggerston Leisure Centre. The report calls for an Options Appraisal Study for Haggerston. But all the options given, from the sale of the site (a grade ll listed building), to the possible reopening of London Fields, are fashioned to depriving the people of Hackney of Leisure Facilities. Anyway, the officers of our almost bankrupt council admitted they could not afford to refurbish Haggerston in the report. So they certainly couldn't reopen London Fields, which on previous costings would cost more than the £395,000 quoted for Haggerston. This shows the options appraisal as an expensive sham, as they have no funding for any option. Because of this, the Shoreditch New Deal Trust are proposing the obvious and asked the council to allow them to run the Haggerston Pool for local people; pursuing non council funding. We supported the SND Trust proposal for Haggerston as the only realistic option; but could not accept the equivalence given with London Fields, which is in a totally different league in quality swimming terms. We had been asked to wait for this pseudo report up to the end of the year. It was obvious to us that this was another non-option. We had been through empty promises before. The last time we promised 5 feasibility proposals 2 years ago, from various organisations. The 2 best proposals were chosen but not proceeded with in spite of the funds being available at the time. The Environment Trust and Matthew Lloyd Architects, were supporting us on a no win - no fee basis. Our only other option at the time was to form a Trust in the hands of local people, with funding coming from charities and other sources. We hoped to get more support from our Councillors to bypass the stubborn blocking tactics shown by their officers. By Nov 2000, Keith Hellen, one of the officers responsible for analysing the possible viability of reopening the London Fields Lido, reported their positive proposals had gone through committee, and has been passed. The report was favourable to the to the refurbishment and upgrading of the Lido facilities using the former council yard next to the pool for some of this development. It was proposed to retain the 50 metre pool, primarily as a long swim sub-regional training facility for the North East London quadrant (one of 4 for London proposed by Sports England). This would still leave plenty of time and space for leisure swimming. There were also proposals for an all weather sliding roof and possible dry training area suitable for other sports. Ian Hook, the newly appointed Director of Community and Learning (formerly called Learning and Leisure) was then discussing with KPMG, the top accountancy and finance advisers, about sources of funding. But, all these proposals and reports amounted to nothing while Hackney Council was economically bankrupt. London Fields User Group and the Environment Trust visited London Fields Primary School on Monday 7 July to discuss difficulties with pool provision and access to sports in the area. This was organised by Lynda Thoroughgood, followed by the children drawing and colouring Olympic Flag of all nations to celebrate sport. This was in preparation of our event on the Fields. Headmaster, Ken Glazier, gave his full support to the proposals and lent sports equipment for our event. Mr Glazier pointed out that "London Fields School used to have four swimming lessons per week and a morning swim club - sadly, lack of facilities, meant that there is now only one lesson". On Saturday 12 July 2003 we held the special event on London Fields in support of reopening the Lido. We called this 'SwimTime @ London Fields'. This was organised by Lynda and helped by Robert Spender of the Environment Trust, who had done so much ground work in writing the Lido proposals. The colourful flags were displayed with various events for the children. We had produced plans for the Lido's development with our partners, The Environment Trust, Matthew Lloyd Architects and Market Sports who had joined us as the management side of the equation. The purpose of the day was to show the potential of the Partnership's plans for reopening this valuable community asset. While an architects model of the scheme was on display. This model was later displayed at the Hackney library, Mare Street. (See SwimTime report Appendix C). The extent of the community involvement and overwhelming level of support on the day showed how much residents and users of London Fields wanted their pool back. Over 1000 people were introduced to the plans for our Lido. Among the most popular activities were the heavily subscribed guided tours of our Olympic sized Lido site, with agreement of the squatters in there. 160 people were shown around. It was a real team effort. There were many volunteers, local organisations and council officers to thank for making the day, and we received a number of apologies and good luck messages from Council members, local community figures and partners who were unable to attend on the Saturday.  The new Lido Oct. 2006 We are now asking for our other proposal to be implemented:A. Adding the grassy strip to the west of the Lido as a sunbathing overflow and picnic area, with about 6 picnic tables. This will probably be vital for a busy summer session. It was also proposed to have about 2m of paving in the set back section with benches against the Lido wall. While the panels in the brickwork would be ideal to enhance the lido by displaying public artwork murals. It definitely needs the high security fence we proposed as any youngster at the moment could climb in with ease. B. And to build a keep fit and sports training building that would work so well with the Lido on the park yard next door. The health suite should offer sauna, steam room, solarium and treatment room. The gym area fitted with top quality cardiovascular and resistance equipment along with ample free weights. Also an aerobics area that can be used for various free exercise, such as yoga, Ti Chi, Pilates, dance etc., also allowing space for community occasions. It could fulfil everything for any sport or someone just wanting to keep fit for life. C. Using a geological heat pump to use the earths free energy. This would be simple to add to the existing set up and consist of a pump, like a refrigerator pump but working in reverse, to circulate fluid through black pipes under the ground to extract natural ground heat and to add this heat to the water for the pool. <http://www.heatpumpnet.org.uk/>
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