Pools update - intrusive survey results out soon

Forest Hill Pools and Library update - Local Councillors motion

Following the commitment of the Mayor after the March 2005 by-election in Forest Hill to maintain swimming facilities, it seemed that progress was being made when he approved the principle of refurbishing the Pools at a cost of £4m.   Local residents who had long feared that facilities were being run down prior to closure welcomed the investment and the commitment, even if there was less happiness with the choices given in the limited public consultation.

There seems to be some progress at the pools, hopefully it's not just the scaffolding holding up building.

 However, the years of lack of investment and the deteriorated state of the Pools came back to haunt the redevelopment plans.   Closure with immediate effect followed a safety inspection earlier in March.   The inspection highlighted the danger of a collapse of the roof.   With fears that the intrusive survey - necessary to assess the refurbishment work needed - itself might cause even further damage, the Mayor approved it after a risk assessment that quantified those dangers.

You may have seen scaffolding going up around the Pools more recently showing that the work on the survey has now started, with a completion date sometime in November.   The Pools will now remain closed until any works have been completed.   While the original draft plan envisaged the site being closed for some 14 months, the dilapidated state of the site and the lack of any clear cut plan mean that the site is now going to be closed for a much longer period.

More bad news came later when the Library was also closed briefly for a dangerous area of ceiling to be cordoned off.   The refurbishment of the Library, which was originally scheduled for this summer, will not now begin until the New Year, but a temporary home for the Library will be sought (possibly in an empty shop on Dartmouth Road) while the works are ongoing.

As Forest Hill councillors we remain concerned about the long-term future of the site as a whole and so we presented a motion to July's Full Council meeting. The motion called on the Mayor and Council officers to develop a coherent long-term masterplan for the site which included the Library, Louise House, Pools and the adjacent green space.   All previous official plans for the buildings have considered them on a stand alone basis with no regard to the impact and future of the wider community site.

The motion - passed by the Council - notes that the Supplementary Planning Guidance already adopted by the Council treats the site as a single combined site. It asks officers to draw up a coherent and comprehensive master plan in consultation with the local community and calls on council officers to find potential sources of extra funding.   We agreed a Labour amendment to the motion (they inserted more complimentary statements about the Mayor's activities) and were happy to do so since it meant that all parties could unanimously agree on the important work that needed to be done as we had set out in the draft.

The motion is an important public statement from the Council to consider the development of the site as a whole, to maintain the whole site for community use, to develop some coherent planning guidance on the development and use of the site and to empower officers to seek wider sources of funding for the expanded works.   As such the motion is a marker of intent for the public and a guide for council officers to follow when planning for the future of the site.

We would hope that the Council will keep to this public commitment.   We await the results of the intrusive survey with interest.   We look forward to seeing officers produce a timetable soon for developing the coherent masterplan for the site as a whole which will benefit Forest Hill both in terms of amenity and regeneration.

If the Council is successful in securing funding, and has the imagination needed, we look forward to a time when this site and surrounding open space provides the quality and diversity of facilities that the people of Forest Hill so want.   Hopefully future plans for the development of this Community site will treat it with the importance it deserves, namely as a key component for the wider redevelopment of the whole Forest Hill town centre.

The authors Alex Feakes, Philip Peake and John Russell are the local lib dem councillors

Footnote: Full details of the motion have been posted on the libdem website