Eighteen months ago I wrote about the scandal of the brand new Clissold Leisure Centre in Hackney, London, which had replaced the much-loved public baths. Opened in 2002, the cost was £31 million instead of £11 million and the contract overran by 95 weeks. The following year it closed, when the electrical plant rooms flooded and the drainage blocked. Since then it has been mothballed and ringed by security guards.
Now, at last the legal battles with the contractors and architects have been settled out of court and scaffolding has been put up to allow the roof to be replaced and other remedial work to be carried out with the money from the settlement. Hackney Council are desperate to re-open before local elections next May but it is more likely to be late next summer, 10 years since the original baths were closed.
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