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And so fifteen summers of outdoor swimming in South London came to a close for me early on Sunday morning as I bid an emotional farewell to @BrockwellLido. A final creak of the iconic turnstiles, and I exited the cool waters of Lake Brockwell for probably the last time. I didn’t get this tearful after buggering off from Brixton Rec.

The @BrockwellLido close of season coincides this summer with the arrival of the Great Escape. With the lido shutters now pulled firmly shut, the bag packing can start in earnest as I seek to find a new outdoor swimming experience somewhere deep within the wilds of North Essex.

When @AnnaJCowen and I sat down some eighteen months ago to compile a list of Reasons to Stay in London, my plus column consisted of a solitary entry: Brockwell Lido. Cricket almost got a look in, as did track cycling at Herne Hill. Replacing cricket is relative; I’m too crocked now to compete seriously at le velo.

It was the absolute love of @BrockwellLido that *almost* kept me in South London. You can’t survive on the last of the summer wine forever, and a lido lifestyle can be a miserable ball and chain to be shackled with during those dark winter months.

But how to say goodbye to an activity that has been at the centre of my South London #hyperlocal universe for the past fifteen summers?

My love affair with the lido started almost as soon as we first moved into South London during the summer of ’95. I kept on hearing about this mythical outdoor pool during my first few weeks in Brixton. A weekend run around Brockwell Park led me to the formal introduction. We’ve had an intimate relationship ever since.

The start of May until the end of September have been put aside for the past fifteen years as Lido Days. It is an addiction that means my working day is not complete unless I have indulged. Breaking the Brockwell habit is going to come at a high cost.

The attraction is mainly physical, partly emotional. I embrace the freshness of the water washing over me each morning in an almost ritualistic manner, providing clarity and perspective for the working day ahead.

The lido has become my thinking place in South London. Most of my major life decisions have been made here in an environment where I am truly clear of any outside distraction or influence. Ironically, the decision to leave South London was made whilst under the cool waters of Lake Brockwell.

Starting your morning with a gentile introduction, albeit a rather physically brutal and mentally bruising experience, leaves you with positive thoughts that remain throughout the day. Colleagues have long since stopped asking me why I am grinning insanely at 9am.

Catching the dancing rays of the sun as they reflect down on to the pool basin is better than any sterile, soulless Brixton Rec indoor swimming experience. Seeing a flock of geese provide you with a personal flyover is an added bonus.

The lido is MY lido. This is a claim that every other lido swimmer would also no doubt make. It can also be yours if you choose it to be. The experience and routine of the daily dip becomes a highly personalised one. You are in complete control of your own immediate environment. No one can touch you [um, not quite true] and anything is achievable.

I feel that I know every physical feature of the pool, from where the uneven white edges around the perimeter start to crack, down to the gradual tethering of the shallow end and the exact spot where you need to raise your knees to prevent grazing on the pool basin.

I can judge with my eyes closed (and usually they are) the precise point where my feet need to make contact as I push off from the deep end as I turn around to do it all again. I swim blind - not in the literal sense, although the pool is home to a number of sight-impaired swimmers.

I have seen many weird and wonderful sights down by the waters of Lake Brockwell over the years. The bonkers underwater hoover, the official Hold Yer Breath Underwater National Championships, and even having to share my lido experience with some model submarines that tried to dive bomb me in the deep end. That’s not something you see every day down at Brixton Rec.

But perhaps the weirdest experience is that of my fellow lido swimmers. All lovely, all totally bonkers. It is the defining feature of someone who chooses to swim outdoors in a water temperature that your body wants to resist, but your mind wants you to indulge in.

My favourite lido moments are the extremes - falling asleep in the suntrap terrace on a South London scorcher of an afternoon, or swimming in the rain mid-September and being the single custodian of the waters of Lake Brockwell. The mid-winter Brockwell Icicles experience takes this crazed approach to aquatic hedonism a stage further.

The building itself may change, but the ambience remains. I was alarmed over the architectural vandalism that the winter 2006 re-build by Fusion proposed. The demolition of an art deco wall, and then replacing it with a full on body pump style gym, could have killed off Brockwell Lido for me.

Somehow the smoke and mirrors trick has managed to hide away the dirty business of the gym bunnies. What goes on behind that wall we don’t talk about, but at least it brings in the money for Fusion, and guarantees a future for the lido.

Remarkably the unique lido ambience is still more or less in place after the most significant building works in the pool’s seventy-year history. This is a place of community, a place to meet people and a place to escape the nearby madness of the city.

It is this companionship that I treasure the most. Seeing fellow swimmers for the first time in the season is always a diary date to look forward to. Saying farewell at the end of September only reminds you of the winter misery months to come. I confess to slipping out quietly on Sunday, not wanting to cause a scene, not wanting to blubber on my final Brockwell Lido day.

And so where to now? Nearby Colchester has the new Garrison pool (fitness swimming) and Leisure World (wave machine hell.) I’m hoping to continue the outdoor aquatic lifestyle, by finding my own personal space downstream in the Colne estuary.

Perhaps this will be the biggest personal legacy that @BrockwellLido leaves upon me. Outdoor swimming is the purest form in which to participate. But to participate effectively, you need companionship. The unique collision of an art deco building in South London with a collective of crazed outdoor aquatic types, is going to be simply irreplaceable.

I regret that I am not going to be around for the BLU AGM next month. It is a social highlight of the lido season, and provides me with my annual opportunity to ask why I should have to pay twice to swim in pools owned by @lambeth_council. Fifteen years of swimming, and I still haven’t heard a satisfactory answer.

But anyway: come on in - the water’s… Brrrrr.

Early Sunday morning and @BrockwellLido was bloody closed - again. After the run of five closures during the balmy days of June, I thought Fusion had finally understood how to manage an outdoor swimming pool.

Only yesterday and I was commenting to the lovely Lido Peter how the clear, blue waters of Lake Brockwell have returned, just in time for the season close at the end of September. Sunday morning however had the familiar “chemical imbalance” given as the reason for the lack of aquatic action.

Bugger.

To be fair to Fusion, all members have been offered a 10% discount on the joining fee for the 2011 season. Cynics might say that this serves only as an incentive to sign up yet again. What’s the point if you’re buggering off @BrockwellLido continues to suffer the same fate next summer?

Having dragged my backside down to Brockwell Park early on Sunday morning, the inconvenience for me was more of a personal and emotional disappointment.

The tally chart counting down my final days of outdoor swimming in SE24 is almost in single digits. A closed pool is about as welcome as a LambethLabour pledge of “free swimming for every resident” right now.

Ah yes - about that pre-election promise of “free swimming for every resident…”

In the absence of any @BrockwellLido action, I returned down Railton Road and found myself staring into the abyss of Brixton Rec.

Blimey.

The queue at reception finally cleared after five minutes - this was 9am on a Sunday morning, after all. Ahead of me to be served was a young mother with three small kids. She asked for an adult swimming ticket, and three passes for the free swimming for her children.

“Sorry,” said the GLL receptionist. “Free swimming is no longer available.” A price was quoted, which didn’t leave much change out of a £20 note. Not surprisingly the young mother had to explain to her three small kids that swimming wasn’t going to happen today.

I paid my £3.50, and then walked past the petition on the wall set up by the Brixton Rec Users Group. It calls for @LambethLabour to reconsider its decision to slash free swimming for under 16′s and over 60′s. The election pledge of “free swimming for every resident” has long since been sacrificed.

I’m told that just over 2,000 signatures have so far been collected by local leisure users - quite an achievement. One thousand more are still required for the Rec Users Group to force the next Full Council meeting to actually take the petition seriously and debate the matter.

That Lambeth Life Power to the People twaddle of a headline is looking more false as the @LambethLabour cuts start to kick in.

With the disappointment of Brockwell behind me, and now ready to experience the delights of Brixton Rec on a Sunday morning, I showered and slipped into the pool. Five minutes later and I was finished.

It was simply impossible to undertake any form of exercise in a public pool that is rammed bumper to bumper with swimmers early on a Sunday morning. That’s what happens when the “success story” of leisure in Lambeth leads to only one pool that is actually open in the entire borough.

I’ll be back at the waters of Lake Brockwell come Monday morning. If the “chemical imbalance” is still lingering, I’ll have to admit defeat and accept that the buggers have won.

“Free swimming for every resident?”

Only in the Rotten Borough…

The political hot potato that is privatised public swimming continues to rumble on. Whilst we’re still waiting for the roll out of the @LambethLabour election manifesto pledge of “free swimming for every resident,” our Red Flag flying friends in the Rotten Borough have now pulled free swimming for under 16′s and over 60′s.

Ah - but have they? Not on my watch etc, and it is of course those nasty ConDems who have been doing the cutting, according to the Comrades @LambethLabour. Using this logic, and your entire election manifesto might as well have been written on the back of a fag packet, with the handy opt out cause of blaming the bigger Westminster political picture whenever you get your kickers in a twist over the calculations locally.

Cripes.

But swimming is still a public service that resonates with many. There’s votes out there in those swimming lanes, doncta know. Right of centre politicians, be they ConDems or @LambethLabour, know this all too well. This is the political logic behind the passing the buck policy of #bigsociety and #lambethcoop.

But could swimming actually be left to the Little People to run? Patrick Butler has posted up an excellent blog post over at Guardian Society, examining specifically what is required for the pubic to take over the management of a local authority owned pool.

The sales pitch for #lambethcoop states that everything is up for grabs - housing, education, swimming. It’s the great Rotten Borough give away - the buggers will give to the Little People, and then bugger off until polling day comes around once again.

Butler makes the worthy point that the public management of swimming pools will probably only work in middle class suburbs where the locals have the time, knowledge and political capital to make such a proposition happen. The only collective spirit you’ll find at Brixton Rec is the continued moaning over the state of the changing rooms, the queues at reception or the over crowding of the pool.

The advice offered by Butler to any Speedo clad civic minded swimmer is to get support from the local authority:

“The state and its agencies still matter: big society swimming pools don’t survive in an infrastructure support-free zone.”

Too true here in Lambeth. Streatham is propped up (and closed) with support from the corporate paymaster of Tesco. Clap’ham is propped up (and running two years plus behind schedule) thanks to the Cathedral Group’s mismanagement of private capital.

I often think that we have reached the nadir of leisure provision here in Lambeth. It was looking bleak when Streatham closed last year. Clap’ham soon followed, and then in the same month, Brixton operated the bonkers 7am - 9am only swimming policy.

With only one leisure centre now remaining in the Rotten Borough, and ALL free swimming removed, the plug has all but been pulled from the public provision of leisure in Lambeth.

Maybe it is this absolute rock bottom that might just kick start the Little People to fight back and actually consider running the facilities collectively? Offering an inferior service than that currently provided by @LambethLabour isn’t possible.

But then this would be the reaction that the Comrades at the Town Hall would no doubt see as an endorsement of the PR farce that is #lambethcoop. The reality would be the exact opposite - collective action against the inability of the local authority to provide a service, rather than a co-operative partnership working in support of the local council.

Either way, it still represents a failure of the right wing privatisation of leisure in Lambeth by @LambethLabour, and the long-term consequences that this will leave for years within the Rotten Borough.

How to solve a problem like Streatham Hub? Preferably by keeping local politicians and corporate paymasters out of the whole process. That was pretty much the conclusion come the end of @ChukaUmunna‘s first People’s Question Time, held in the Labour MP’s Streatham constituency on Thursday evening.

The Hub is a headline writer’s gift that keeps on giving. At any one time over the past ten years, stories of mismanagement have surfaced out of SW16.

The latest entry log states that @lambeth_council has now admitted that “plans will not move forward” for the temporary swimming pool in Streatham, and Tesco stating that “Lambeth Council has compromised in choosing Pope’s Road as a site for the temporary ice rink.”

Cripes.

The Hub saga story so far…

In a classic you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours scenario, the corporate superstore was granted planning permission in Streatham, in return for building a new leisure centre and a new ice rink. So far, so good.

The trouble is that this was almost ten years ago. The scheme is filled with as much uncertainty a decade later as it was back in the day. The timeline up until 2010 has included Tesco holding all the cards and threatening to walk away unless an increased floor space was granted, the closure (and failure to re-open) of Streatham Leisure Centre and the continued search for a temporary ice rink in Streatham.

Ah yes - about that Streatham Brixton temporary ice rink. It is the “continuity of ice” clause in the original planning document that led the good @ChukaUmunna to hold this current crisis meeting.

Essentially Tesco has to provide an ice pad at all times in Streatham. This was fine with the original agreement, which involved constructing the brand new rink on the Hub site, and then knocking down the old barn.

The corporate paymaster became impatient however, and wanted to bulldoze the site with one great big swing of the wrecking ball. Meanwhile @lambeth_council was left looking rather silly, searching around for a suitable site in an urban borough to place a whopping great big temporary ice pad.

The packed assembly hall at Dunraven School on Thursday night was unanimous in rejecting @lambeth_council’s current plan to shift Streatham Ice Rink down the A23 to Pope’s Road Car Park in Brixton.

This has emerged as the U-turn choice from the @LambethLabour cabinet, after the whole community united against the bonkers plan to place the ice pad on Streatham Common.

“This is a highly emotive issue,” admitted @ChukaUmunna at the start of the People’s Question Time. “There is a perception in the community that residents have been held in the dark over recent months.”

Sandra Fryer, representing the council as the Divisional Director of Strategies and Partnerships stated:

“We have been working with Tesco since March on the location. Streatham Common had processing issues [eh?] - it would have taken us longer than we wanted to place the rink here. There were also technical issues. It wasn’t clear where the power source would come from.”

You would have hoped that before rubber-stamping the Streatham Common site back in March, cabinet would have had the foresight to address basic issues such as where the power for the ice pad was going to come from.

A solution is available, slightly closer to home than the Pope’s Road compromise.

“We also looked at a site on Streatham High Road,” admitted Fryer. “Tesco have a budget however, and weren’t able to progress with this option.”

And so it seems that Pope’s Road became the preferred location on account of @lambeth_council already owning the site. Two birds can be killed with one stone, by demolishing the structurally unsafe council car park, and then plonking the ice pad there instead.

The fear for the Streatham skating and hockey community however is that Pope’s Road becomes permanent, and the south end of the borough loses one of it’s most historic and cultural sites of interest forever.

Having skipped the previous Streatham Hub public meeting, it was decent for the corporate paymaster to turn up this time. Mike Kissman, the UK Corporate Affairs Manager for Tesco, told the meeting:

“Running an ice rink is not something that we have a great deal of experience in.”

Best learn on the job then, Mr Corporate Affairs Man. Tesco will be financing the temporary pad and is expected to either manage the facility itself, or put in place a management team that is capable of the job.

Questions then followed from the floor.

“The plans for Streatham Hub have chopped and changed so much, what guarantees can you give this meeting that this won’t happen again?”

Apt timing for the fashionably late arrival of Councillor Florence Nosegbe, the Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and the Olympics:

“We own Pope’s Road - we can control the process. It will be easier for the council to move forward.”

Tesco’s Kissman added:

“Time is the issue for Tesco.”

You can bet it is. Every week that Tesco hasn’t got a superstore open in Streatham is a week where the competitors along the High Road are rubbing their hands and lining their tills. Plus it’s, ahem, a little late in the day for Tesco to be complaining about the Hub timeline after a decade of dithering.

A speaker from the floor came back to the location of the temporary rink, and picked up on the point why Pope’s Road has been chosen, rather than the High Road location:

“With annual profits recently revealed, plus with the planned increased of 20,000 extra floor space at Streatham, Tesco is not exactly light of wallet right now. Why can’t the company pay to finance the staging of the temporary rink along the High Road?”

This question achieved the loudest applause of the evening, if not the most adequate of answers:

“We have been through difficult times,” said Kissman. “We are still here. We are an organisation, and not a local authority.”

Which all rather begs the question who is actually controlling leisure in Lambeth? The local authority that is reliant upon the private capital to finance the schemes, or the private capital paymaster that won’t be accountable?

Jimmy Gardner from the Streatham Chiefs Ice Hockey team then made an impassioned speech:

“We had a show of hands this week. If Streatham Ice Rink moves to Pope’s Road then my club will fold. This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - there is no demand for ice hockey in Streatham, and so there is no need to build a rink back in SW16.”

“Why won’t you work with other local councils?” asked another question. “If Lambeth Council actually spoke to the likes of the neighbouring Merton Council, you might actually find a site closer to home.”

Other observations from the floor centred on the Brixton location, with accusations that “the Lambeth cabinet is not visible in Streatham. Everything has to be Brixton based.”

The meeting then moved on to discuss dimensions - dimensions of the temporary ice pad and dimensions of possible parking space at Pope’s Road.

Councillor Nosegbe confirmed that the temporary pad will be 56m x 26m in dimension - a size smaller than a standard hockey pad, and a space that is unsuitable for figure skating, as the mother of a Streatham skater pointed out.

The @LambethLabour Councillor also confirmed that there is the “possibility” of parking for twenty spaces at Pope’s Road. The average hockey team benches twenty-five players.

Finally we came on to the Elephant in the Streatham meeting road - swimming.

Oh Lordy.

With all the focus on the temporary ice pad, swimming has been overlooked in Streatham. Swimming has been overlooked in all of Lambeth over the past four years, if truth be told.

Whereas ice time had a continuity clause in the Hub deal, swimming has historically not been treated to this privilege. This is probably because @lambeth_council wasn’t expecting to close Streatham Leisure Centre late last year, without an alternative plan in place.

Councillor Nosegbe said:

“I recognise that there has been an under-investment in the pool. We don’t have the funds for a temporary arrangement in Streatham. We won’t be going forward with this.”

Where all of this leaves the @LambethLabour election manifesto pledge of “free swimming for every resident” is somewhat uncertain right now.

A final question pondered: “What will happen at the cabinet meeting on Monday night?”

The implication within the question was whether or not Councillor Nosegbe would report back to her @LambethLabour friends on the strength of feeling against the Pope’s Road compromise that is currently being felt within Streatham.

The reality of course is that the @LambethLabour cabinet will have a friendly chit chat on Monday evening, and the temporary ice pad will be agreed to be put in place at Pope’s Road in under half an hour after the meeting has commenced.

The real question however is will the Pope’s Road rink ever actually open, and more importantly, will @ChukaUmunna still be holding his People’s Question Time in five, ten years time, still pondering the Streatham Hub question?

The cabinet paper for the @lambeth_council cabinet meeting on July 26th has been published, and whadya know - Streatham Ice Rink is Brixton bound.

Blimey.

As *cough* revealed over here last month:

“This report sets out the progress since March and in particular recommends that the temporary ice rink to be located on the former car park site at Pope’s Road, Brixton.”

And so it would seem that the permanent temporary ice pad at Streatham is making its way down Brixton Hill, and positioning itself on the derelict Pope’s Road car park after all. Hurrah for the continuity of ice clause, pity the poor sods trying to earn a living at Brixton Market.

The Pope’s Road compromise is probably the best outcome out of a no win situation. With all the power to run leisure in Streatham long since sold away to a corporate superstore, @LambethLabour has been left to *sell* the idea of the compromise to the Little People.

The relief will be that the temporary ice rink won’t be plonked on Streatham Common, as seemed to be the non-negotiable stance taken by cabinet, only as recently as March of this year.

The fear for the Streatham skaters and hockey players is that Pope’s Road will become permanent. Tesco will have no reason to finance a permanent pad back up in SW16, and a historic cultural facility will be lost in Streatham forever.

Pope’s Road makes ‘strategic sense’ [urgh] in being next door to Brixton Rec. Don’t rule out the bonkers idea of changing facilities for skaters and hockey players being placed in some shoebox of a corner tucked away at the back of the Rec.

Some issues still remain over the Pope’s Road rink. In true Rotten Borough style, concerns have been raised in the cabinet paper regarding, um, car-parking provision at the former car park.

See what they have done there?

“Linked to the above would be the ability for users, particularly families to be able to access some dedicated parking, pick up and drop off points and to access taxis to ensure safe and convenient access for users.”

Doh!

One step forward, two steps back.

Shifting a major part of the local economy in Streatham down to Brixton needn’t have been necessary if @LambethLabour had actually had the balls to stand up to Tesco in the first place. The original agreement was for Tesco to knock down the old SW16 barn first, build the brand new ice and leisure facilities, and only then on completion, planning permission would be granted for the superstore.

But Tesco soon took control of the timeline and changed the priority to retail, rather than community leisure facilities. This of course fits in perfectly with the private provision of all services that is favoured by the right wing @LambethLabour cabinet. The end result is the transference of power in Streatham from the local authority to a major corporate power.

But wait - what of the temporary dry sport [urgh] and *shhh* swimming facilities back up in Streatham? These too were promised back in March, as part of the political bending over backwards by @LambethLabour to keep Tesco on board.

The cabinet paper for July appears to mothball the idea of swimming returning to Streatham in a temporary capacity, stating:

“The March Cabinet report gave details of the provision a 25m x 12m six lane temporary swimming pool and associated facilities. The report also highlighted the considerable footprint such a pool and its housing would require. The only available sites in the Streatham area for such a facility is identical to those identified for the temporary ice rink and present all of the same difficulties and issues.

In addition there is no budget provision for the cost of purchase and or lease for such a facility and the net cost to the council would still require a subsidy of at least £14 per user. No further action has been taken pending a decision from Cabinet on if a further report detailing the financial implications is required and on whether and when public consultation should commence.”

This appears to be yet another classic @LambethLabour approach to totally overlooking the provision of swimming in the Rotten Borough.

Meanwhile, Tesco has the corporate cheek (and power) to demand a further increased floor space in return for financing the scheme. An extra 40% was rubber stamped by @LambethLabour to save face back in March. Now it seems that a further 20,000 square foot is required if the scheme is to progress:

“Tesco has developed proposals for an additional 20,000 sq ft of retail floor space to be contained within the approved store in the form of a mezzanine [urgh] floor. It is envisaged that this additional floor space will provide space for non-food retail goods.”

All of the above bumbling has led to the Streatham Hub timeline being delayed once again. The back slapping that took place at cabinet back in March concluded with a pledge for the new ice rink, swimming pool and dry sports facilities to be completed by Q4 2012.

The cabinet paper for July lets slip that Q3 2013 is now the current target. And so yeah - Streatham will remain without any sports facilities as the Olympics takes pride of place across town in 2012.

Cabinet will be rubber stamp the proposals at 7pm on 26th July in Room 8. Speaking rights for *ahem* citizens are extremely limited. If you want to have your say on the continued confusion surrounding Streatham Hub, then a better bet is to attend that nice @ChukaUmunna‘s People’s Question Time, taking place on 22nd July at Dunraven School.

Oh, go on then - one more time…