Swimming club welcomed home with slashed pool bookings

From the Hackney Gazette:

Clissold Swimming Club has 'moved home' to Clissold Leisure Centre.

But a spokesman has admitted club officials are "disappointed" with Hackney Council's decision to offer them exclusive use of the pool on just one night a week.

The centre, in Clissold Road, Stoke Newington, has been closed for the past four years for refurbishment - but now that the work is complete, the club is set to make a welcome return.

Throughout the four-year period that the centre had been closed, the club had been forced to do much of its swimming outside the borough.

Spokesman Kate Cornwall-Jones said: "The re-opening of Clissold Leisure Centre will allow us to swim in Hackney six days a week.

"However, it is disappointing that Hackney Council have cancelled our two whole pool bookings at Kings Hall and are only offering one similar session at Clissold Leisure Centre between 6pm and 8pm.

"Clissold SC is ambitious on behalf of young swimmers in Hackney and to deliver our vision for excellence and increase participation in swimming we need more whole pool bookings at more appropriate hours. We look forward to working in partnership with Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) and Hackney Council to increase the opportunities for local people to achieve their maximum potential in swimming and other aquatic sports.

more »

 

Swimmers left high and dry by neglected pools

Kate Hoey in the Daily Telegraph.

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.

more »