onionbagblog

comeout2nite was the rather kind request from former work colleague and now firm pal @jamboshoeshine - and so comeout2nite I most definitely did, along with @darryl1974 and @richardgallon. In North London as well.

Blimey.

Ah, north of the river; I had a nosebleed as soon as the N63 crossed at Blackfriars. The friendly face of @darryl1974 boarded on the next stop, completely oblivious to the weird man wearing his cravat scarf, sitting on the back seat.

A touch of onboard bus tweeting later, and the mood was set for the evening - full on fun, with a touch of confusion and misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.

The last time I drank at the Betsey Trotwood, EC1, was for a work leaving party of mine that never was. I sort of left, but didn’t really, but now have. Add into the mix the small matter of come(ing)out2nite with ex-work colleagues, and you can see how the confusion continued to creep in.

Not even time for the first drinks, when the good @darryl1974 and I were tapped on the shoulder, and tapped up by a rather charming young lady. Cripes. She was already on first names terms with us, even without any introductions. Ah, that will be a friend of @richardgallon, already told to be on the look out for two nerdy bloggers propping up the Clerkenwell bar.

As for Mr @richardgallon himself? Further confusion as a tweet dropped asking about our whereabouts. Downstairs, came the reply, not knowing that we were actually on the ground floor, unaware of the dungeon down below.

@toddnash soon made an appearance with “new lady friend,” who actually turned out to be his lovely old lady friend, despite the tenderness in her years. All of this North London clubbing lark was clearly getting to me.

And so there ends the rather long and elongated introduction into how an evening of glorious indie pop fun got off on a rather weird tangent, yet somehow managed to continue with the merry band of comeout2nite(rs), reunited in the basement bar for booze, banter and a bop.

I like to think of comeout2nite as the rather kooky younger cousin to How Does It Feel. For a club night that boasts bis, Moldy Peaches and Half Man Half Biscuit on the flyer, you know that you’re going to grin a lot throughout the evening.

Sultans of Ping took me back to the indie disco bopping of mispent youth; Stereolab’s French Disko is still a killer tune and sounded as fresh as ever as the swagger of the Marxist / cycling collectve filled the basement cellar.

Yer man @jamboshoeshine seemed to be on fine form, mixing his DJ skills with front of house meet ‘n greet duties. The Good Lady Wife (down, and then down again) was also packing them in on the dance floor with her transatlantic take on UK indie loser culture.

I loved this part of the evening. Early ’70s glam Bowie is just perfect for the feel of the evening, but none of the clichés were pulled out. Muso conversations were attempted, but ultimately your feet just can’t stand still when Helen Love comes a calling.

Sadly also coming a calling was a rather early start on Sunday morning back at the coalface. A few farewells, and then I was back on the N63 and SW8 bound. Some plum talking tart on the backseat asked if “we are at Angel” as the bus pulled in at The Oval.

Mass confusion, from start to finish. I felt like I had spent the evening in a parallel universe. Perhaps Clerkenwell is an anomaly in the space-time continuum?

comeout2nite next time to find out.

Top night, kids.

Some half-decent reporting from the Oxford Media Convention and a panel debate on local authority information sheets propaganda papers. It’s a well trodden path around these parts, not to mention an endless supply of free sub-standard toilet paper.

Agendas are of course at work - the head of Trinity Mirror isn’t exactly going to support the local council twadle that is published. Likewise the agenda from the hyperlocal (get in there!) blogger is unlikely to be favourable to the loss making local paper (a point of interest: there wasn’t any SLP representation at the @lambeth_council full council meeting last night.)

I can’t help thinking that it’s a debate that is only taken seriously by local politicians, local media and bored bloggers. The readers of traditional local media have an established relationship and routine; the readers of the council mini Pravdas take them at face / backside value.

But as ever, it’s the electorate that loses out with a lack of accountability. We haven’t yet reached the stage in Lambeth where an all out war is declared between local council and local paper. It would be a tasty toe-to-toe match up, and one which might just bring down the respected egos.

If it’s the evening of the best football match of the season, then it must mean that I draw the short straw and cycle off for a Full Council Meeting at Lambeth Town Hall. An own goal, a possible red card and even the suggestion of a streaker - and that was just in the Council chamber.

Cripes.

You need the patience of a Saint to sit through all the twaddle and posturing that takes place within local government. The good @mayoroflambeth fortunately has this attribute. His charisma alone chaired the meeting. How else to make the voting of twenty-one motions at the close seem worth sitting through?

The main thrust midweek in Lambeth was a themed debate on the current state of Health Inequalities in Lambeth. A serious subject that requires serious debate and commentary. I think we just about got there.

Lambeth Primary Care Trust (it use to be called the NHS back in the day) was represented by its Chief Executive Kevin Barton and a selection of his colleagues. I bumped into one of the PCT representatives as I stalked a backroom corridor before the meeting.

“Do you know where the main chamber is?” I politely enquired.

“What on earth would you want to go in there for?,” came the reply.

Being quizzed by our democratically elected representatives from the Left Right and the further Right was obviously not on the radar for the fine PCT representative. I had her down as a closet Villa fan.

I soon settled with the rest of the Little People, looking down on the great den of democracy. Actually there was around a dozen or so of us in the public gallery. It wasn’t exactly standing room only down in the chamber either, with a number of empty seats from our fine upstanding councillors.

Down to business, and actually a half-decent debate. The Green Party’s Councillor Thackray made an important point about the provision for HIV prevention and care in Lambeth. Yer man Mr Barton gave the chamber a cold reality check with talk of “smarter, more imaginative ways to meet the expected deficit.” I think he was talking about allowing the free market into the Rotten Borough.

“Resources will be squeezed” over the next decade, with even talk of a “financial tsunami.” Blimey. I bet some knobber mentions the ‘elephant in the room’ next, I pondered, as I flicked around my iPhone for the latest football score.

“Can we talk about the elephant in the room?” enquired a Labour member. She wasn’t referring to leisure, either.

Ah, leisure in the Rotten Borough. My leisure, other people’s pleasure. Labour’s @cllr_robbins made the connection between increased leisure provision and preventative health care. He didn’t mention that his administration has just shut all three swimming pools in the Rotten Borough.

The Love Me I’m a Liberal lot took issue with some of the figures contained within the health report. One in five people in Lambeth live in Sunny Stockwell, apparently. Sunny side of the street, ‘n all that.

“Stockwell is a beautiful place,” observed the good Labour Councillor @imogenwalker. It most certainly is, but now is not the time to be complacent.

There was also the observation by Labour’s @CllrMarkBennett that residents in his St Reatham South ward live longer than the average national age. Woh. Way to go St Reatham South.

This is genuinely encouraging and positive news. I just can’t help but think that the blue rinse brigade down in SW16 are getting a little bored of Countdown, what with no leisure centre or library in their patch to help pass away the afternoon.

Exit stage left of our friends from Lambeth PCT, enter stage right Punch ‘n Judy. The second half of the session was put aside for Q & A’s. This is where the local politicians like to rehearse their skills at being the big boys as they plot their political careers towards Westminster.

Ambition is a wonderful trait. It needs to be focussed however, and not played out at the detriment for local people living in one of the most deprived boroughs in the country.

My plague on both houses moment came when it came down to a bloody Tory to defend leisure in Lambeth. Has it really come to this? A right wing Labour administration that is being made to look foolish by the party of privatisation?

What followed was an astonishing speech from Labour councillor Rachel Heywood, the Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities. It was a red rag moment that Wayne Rooney would have been proud of - if he could find a leisure centre in Lambeth that is still open, that is.

Councillor Heywood stated that she was “not embarrassed” about the abject failure of Lambeth Labour’s leisure policy. It was a very different approach from the good Councillor, compared to the touchy, feely ‘concern’ that was shown when I spoke with her about leisure from a user’s perspective, some forty-eight hours earlier.

A murmur of “Keep Clap’ham Swimming” came from the opposition benches. I wasn’t quite sure of Council chamber protocol, but I missed the moment to throw down from the public gallery my goggles in disgust.

Hey hoe. All was not lost. I was inspired by Labour councillor @QueenFlo, who praised the work of Space Makers and #brixvill down in SW9 over the past few weeks. Fellow Labour Councillor @jkazantzis confirmed that Space Makers have been invited back to Lambeth, with talk of St Reatham and Norwood benefiting from use of empty commercial space. They should have a field day in St Reatham.

Sticking with St Reatham and Labour’s Lib Peck, Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, was asked by the LibDems about the failed St Reatham Hub project. Two very precise and very worthwhile questions were raised:

(i) Can the Councillor give assurances that all existing leisure facilities in Streatham will have a home once [if?] the hub project is complete, and

(ii) Can the Councillor confirm that St Reatham Ice Rink will remain open until a new facility is built?

Councillor Lib Peck answered the questions by hiding behind the lame protection of “commercial confidentiality.” Looks like Tesco’s has got Labour Lambeth right by the balls. Assuming there are any left, that is.

And that was just about yer lot. All that remained was the voting on twenty-one motions. Not everyone sat through the entire debate, but the boys seemed to know which buttons to press anyway.

Long live democracy. Only in the Rotten Borough.

I went in search of the “success story” of leisure in Lambeth today. I didn’t find any evidence of it at Brixton Rec. Instead I found unhappy users, who have been shunted from site to site, changing room to changing room, and all in the name of continued investment.

Twenty four hours after the good Councillor Nigel Haselden very kindly agreed to explain Lambeth Labour’s confused leisure policy, I still can’t quite see where the “success story” angle comes from.

I think (hope?) that I put across the user’s point of view in the previous podcast. Padlocking up swimming pools isn’t a sign of the success story that Lambeth Labour likes to portray.

Many thanks to the very kind users who I door-stepped in a very undignified manner as they were leaving the current shoebox that doubles up as a changing room. It was slightly awkward lurking around the locker room, especially so with children waiting to use the space.

I wanted to add a female perspective, but it felt just plain wrong to point my iPhone in the face of females as they were frog marched up the back stairs, still dripping wet en route to the roundabout way of finding the ladies’ changing room.

And so not the most successful of vox pops; which at least keeps in theme with the subject matter of the crazy claims that leisure in Lambeth is a success story.

After all the talk over swimming (or lack of it) in Clap’ham, Brixton and St Reatham over the past few weeks around these parts, it all comes back to a picture painting a thousand words. I think.

I greatly appreciated getting the go ahead by the lovely GLL manager at SW4 to carry out a ghost photo shoot at the closed Clap’ham pool. With the bulldozers moving in next month, this would be my final time at Clap’ham Manor.

It didn’t feel emotional, just strangely surreal. With the water still in the pool (waiting for Thames Water to assist with the drainage,) and with the two charming recpetionists still at their stations (telling customers that Clap’ham is closed,) - not much had changed.

I spent an enjoyable half hour with one of the lifeguards, lamenting happier times down at Clap’ham, and looking ahead to an uncertain future. New postings within the GLL family of pools are currently being waited upon by the staff. Pity the poor sods that get Brixton.

The photographs themselves were another opportunity to try out the still undecided upon Nikon D3000. I felt confident during the shoot and in control of what I was capturing. Back at base and it was a different story. The images below have been Photoshopped to the extreme, leaving a great sense of let down.

Which rather sums up Lambeth Labour’s pledge to Keep Clap’ham Swimming.

I rather enjoyed interviewing Councillor Nigel Haselden, Deputy Cabinet Member for Sustainability at Lambeth Council. We clashed on a number of points during our conversation, but I found the good Councillor to be charming company, and very transparent in trying to make some sort of sense out of Lambeth Labour’s current confused leisure policy.

We disagreed over the interpretation, and implication, of Lambeth Council being forced to shut Streatham Leisure Centre, and then being dictated to by private developer Cathedral Group as to when to shut Clap’ham Leisure Centre.

I simply failed to see the “success story” that Councillor Haselden was trying to spin out of the current closure of Brixton Rec, less than three years after the £2m plus refurbishment.

And so with Tesco in control of leisure in Streatham, and Cathedral Group calling the shots in Clap’ham, I was keen to find out what the pay off is for the private company in SW4.

I asked Councillor Haselden what the benefit is for Cathedral Group in the whole Future Clap’ham project. The answer of: “When they sell their posh flats on top of the High Street” tells you all you need know about the priorities of Lambeth Labour - selling off valued council land to the high end of the private sector.

We also touched on the Keep Clap’ham Swimming election manifesto that returned three Labour councillors in the Clap’ham Town ward back in 2006. Councillor Haselden confirmed that this is an election pledge that Lambeth Labour plans to stick with at the next set of local elections in May of this year. Ultimately it will be the fine people of Lambeth who will pass judgement on this promise.

The good Councillor expressed that he was “alarmed by my conclusion” that Lambeth Labour has lost control of leisure in the borough. I stand by this assertion. The “slight hiccup” of only having two hours in the morning when a pool is open in Lambeth would seem to favour my observations.

But yes - it was very decent of Councillor Haselden to argue his cause, and I am more than happy to provide a platform on m’blog for an elected official to explain the current situation. Plus also a big heads up for the ever-wonderful @mayoroflambeth for pulling the strings behind the scenes, and setting up the interview.

Having just been told by a @lambeth_council elected official that the leisure policy of the Labour led administration is a “success story” (more to follow…) I returned back to my SW8 base to find a great comment from an ex-Lambeth leisure user.

David’s experience of the mismanagement of leisure in the Rotten Borough mirrors the experience of most users that I have spoken with since the Lambeth leisure meltdown. I felt the comment needed more of a public platform, and so I have published it in full as a separate post.

“Leisure will be a major issue at the 2010 local elections,” as the good Councillor Haselden told me this morning.

Too bloody right.

“So angry and frustrated! I’m Andrew’s swimming housemate who after 14 years of pleasure and misery using Lambeth pools, has finally given up. It’s too early to say how successful the membership move to Nuffield and the Queen Mother will be, but my first visit was a success with reasonable room in the pool and organised system and friendly staff (not that the staff at Clapham and Brixton were not friendly,) and great promise as well as hot water and lots of it in the showers and keys in the lockers.

I never really went back to Brixton much after the last upgrade and changing room debacle, preferring to stay at the decaying Clapham. It is so galling that everything closes at the same time, and at a time that swimming is supposedly being encouraged.

I knew that the 8 weeks upgrade (yeah right that will really happen on time) followed by severe overcrowding would be a miserable and stressful experience for me instead of relaxing and health promoting. I am so glad I am not putting myself through it.

Surely closing all the pools and sports centres with the resulting lack of provision and overcrowding is also a stupid idea at the beginning of the year when many people take on new membership. Trying to to get a regular swim in Lambeth at a regular time has for many years been made as difficult as possible. Women only swims and private lessons in peak times amongst other things have left pathetic lanes which are too narrow to pass in.

I’ve given up on the feedback sessions and customer suggestion forms which were ignored. I was ashamed I didn’t go to the last Clapham meeting to tell the council organisers what I thought of their organisation, but it just didn’t seem worth my while to waste more of my time. All I can say is I’m glad I finally jumped ship, come on in the waters fine. Good luck to you onion blog and my fellow Lambeth swimmers.”

Many thanks to David for the comment.