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Delighted
about baths, but beware of what may follow
• I have been away for a week, but I was delighted
on my return to see in your report (Victory in Pool Fight, February
9) that the council is considering that Kentish Town baths should
remain in Prince of Wales Road.
I commend this news as a user of the baths and as a near neighbour,
because this has to be the right way forward.
Many of your correspondents on this issue have, of course, been
shamelessly electioneering and equally shamelessly quoting me.
This good news should silence them, but of course I doubt this.
It is the obvious solution to a dilemma for Labour councillors
who have to take difficult decisions but have always been committed
to retaining a public baths facility in Kentish Town.
If the executive votes on February 22 to retain these baths
here, as you suggest, it has been my view that the scarce funds
should be invested in refurbishing the interior to incorporate
a cleverly redesigned layout with also the ‘green’
energy-saving measures that are now available. I won’t
repeat them.
The Willes and Grafton pools must both be saved. It is only
the expressive late-Victorian terracotta exterior shell, listed
by English Heritage, that must be preserved.
I hope that the executive will support this option, but residents
and users will no doubt wish to be consulted, after the May
elections perhaps, on how they would like to see an interior
which keeps these two pools in a design context which is both
economically justifiable and also sustainable.
CLLR GERRY HARRISON
(Lab) Kentish Town ward
Town Hall, WC1
• IT is good news to read that the Prince of Wales swimming
baths in Kentish town may be saved (Victory in pool Fight, Feb
9).
However, we as the public must beware of Labour. Despite their
firm promise in the last local election that the baths would
be refurbished, we have had to fight tooth and nail for our
councillors to reconsider their future.
What we all need to know now is how much of the land would be
sold off. How tall the building on that site would be? Would
the pools be owned and managed by Camden or privatised as in
the new Swiss Cottage sports centre?
So let us not vote for Labour until we have satisfactory answers
to these important questions.
The horror of Swiss Cottage is fresh on everybody’s mind.
As Duncan McMillan points out, at £539.40 for a membership
and anticipated £3.30 per swim, the new pool at Swiss
Cottage will be so expensive that only those willing to rob
a small bank on the way to the ticket office need apply (Letters,
February 9). We must be consulted about every details of this
new scheme to ensure that this is not Labour trying to get their
own way through the back door.
Vanessa Lopes
Prince of Wales Road, NW5
• IT is all very well that, at the 11th hour, Labour
chiefs have finally realised they would lose an important election
unless they listened to the electorate. Not a moment too soon.
However, their statements must be studied carefully. They
have not promised to abandon selling the site at the Kentish
Town Swimming baths to private developers. Indeed they say they
will. They simply say that they would keep the two 33-metre
pools users are so keen to maintain, rather than build a 21st-century,
state of the art yuppie centre with exercise bikes and the like.
This does not mean that we would not end up with a similar scheme
as in Swiss Cottage. Once bitten twice shy must surely guide
our reaction to the council’s latest edict.
The hideousness of Nexus One at Visage will surely remain an
architectural blight in north London. The unaffordable and now
privatised 25m pool and yuppie centre for nearby will forever
serve to bitterly remind residents of what they have lost. Basil
Spence’s magnificent 33m swimming baths have been knocked
down and replaced by something uglier, smaller, more cramped
and privatised to boot.
So beware of the executive trying to feed us dodgy goods disguised
as sweets. Are we to end up with a similar shocking building
scheme as in Swiss Cottage with the promise of keeping pools
which will end up being privatised and which no one will be
able to afford once they are built?
William Felix
Elmore Street, N1
• Camden’s Labour leadership said it was committed
to keeping excellent swimming facilities in the area and the
great news on Kentish Town Baths you reported proves they were
true to their word (Victory in pool fight, February 9).
Labour listened to local people who made it clear how much
they loved the splendid Victorian building – but councillors
also listened to people who said they wanted value for money
and pool space. This new option achieves all these things –
for £12 million, half the cost of the scheme the Lib Dems
were demanding.
Mike Katz
Haverstock Labour Party
Camden Road, NW1
• It looks like residents can breathe a partial sigh
of relief at the news that Labour councillors are going to partially
reverse their position on the Kentish Town Baths.
If this proves to be true it is vital that we never again
let the council threaten the availability of spacious and affordable
leisure facilities in this community.
But it has taken Labour far, far too many months to see the
wood from the trees on this issue.
It was clear to us from day one that Labour’s estimates
were extortionate, their ideas were pie-in-the-sky and their
decisions were undemocratic.
And many questions remain unanswered. Why do councillors still
want to sell off the site of the children’s pool? Why do
they still refuse to engage residents in the decision-making
process at any stage?
Other than the public meeting organised by our campaign, there
was no formal opportunity for people to tell the council their
views.
And finally, the crucial question. After months of Kentish Town’s
Labour councillors loyally supporting a huge reduction in leisure
space, can they really be trusted to stick to this new policy
after May’s elections?
I am suggesting that the strong campaign launched to save the
baths should now take on the permanent form of a Kentish Town
baths users group to keep the pressure on the council.
Please get in touch on the email address savekentishtownbaths@hotmail.co.uk
to help with this.
Philip Thompson
Save Kentish Town Baths Campaign
King Henry’s Road, NW3
• The news about Kentish Town swimming baths appears
to be positive (Victory in Pool Fight, February 9). Everyone,
however, must keep their eyes on the ball. What residents have
made clear they wanted were similar pools as those they have
enjoyed for decades: same length, same width, same depth, same
number, simple, clean and affordable.
What they certainly do not want is the “deluxe leisure
centre with a host of new facilities, such as dance studios”
costing some exorbitant price, which the Labour executive have
tried to convince us we wanted. That was, no doubt, the developers’
dream of doing a repeat of the Swiss Cottage fiasco.
Build a cheap, ghastly building with flats which Philistine
nouveau rich buy despite obvious aesthetic draw backs, but throw
in a private membership to swish modern sports centre with all
the trimmings. Keep Mr and Mrs Riff Raff and their progenies
out by charging high prices. And bingo, you have a Swiss Cottage
repeat.
Council officials seem to be listening to residents, if not
out of conviction, then certainly out of fear of being voted
out. That’s sensible. But we must all make sure that electoral
promises are kept. Consultations are vital to retain the confidence
of residents. Officials have to be clear, honest and precise
so that we can be persuaded to vote for them.
The big question mark for me is whether I can really trust Labour
to protect the common interest?
I, for one, remain still very sceptical.
Simon Howard
Rosecroft Avenue, NW3
• Finally Labour chiefs are coming out with their best
bedside manners and curbing their grumpy, intolerant attitude
towards their electorate.
Helpfully, they leak that the Prince of Wales swimming baths
will be saved (Victory in Pool fight, February 9). It all sounds
so promising.
So why am I wondering where the deceit lies? Have we so lost
our faith in our local government that we simply cannot trust
them to do the right thing anymore?
Raj Patel
Malden Road, NW5 |
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