From the Telegraph:A father has described his anger after he and his son were refused entry to their local swimming pool because they weren't Muslims.
David Toube and Harry, five, were turned away by staff from the men-only session.
The council admitted yesterday that workers at Clissold Leisure Centre in Hackney, north London, made a mistake and offered the family an apology.
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Mr Toube, 39, a lawyer, said they visited the baths at 9am on Sunday.
“I arrived at the pool to discover that they were holding what staff described to me as 'Muslim men-only swimming’,” he said.
“I asked whether my son and I could go as we were both male.
“I was told that the session was for Muslims only and that we could not be admitted.”
Mr Toube then spoke to the duty manager, who confirmed he could not enter.
“I asked what would happen if I turned up and insisted I was Muslim.
“The manager suggested that they might ask the Muslims swimming if they minded my son and I swimming with them. If they didn’t object, we might be allowed in.”
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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.
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From
Building:
Hodder soon encountered the sort of problems that go with local government work. “In the early days, there was a constant change of personnel at the council,” he recalls. “Tony Ellison, the chief executive, left, the [in-house] project manager changed. There was a tremendous lack of continuity.”
Kim Wright, director of community and leisure at Hackney, admits: “It’s no secret. There was no overall political control and it was a fairly chaotic managerial arrangement.”
But the real difficulties started in 1997 when Sport England, one of the scheme’s co-funders, designated Hackney a priority initiative area, which meant, according to Hodder, that there was money available to take the budget to £10m. However, what should have been a boon for the project quickly became a poisoned chalice.
“That prompted Hackney, not unreasonably, to rethink the brief,” says Hodder. “I felt there were things that we could improve … the size of the gym facility could be bigger, there was no spectators’ facility. There was quite a lot of public consultation that led to changes – for example, to the changing rooms because of the Orthodox Jewish community.”
There was debate, too, over the scheme’s two 25m swimming pools. Some felt that there should be a single 50m Olympic pool – an idea that was dropped – but one of the pools was stretched from six to eight lanes.
These were substantial changes, but Hackney was keen to start work on site as soon as possible, partly because it had been advised that this would save on VAT. However, tenders for the project came in at £13m, £3m higher than anticipated. The design team and the council came up with a compromise budget of £11.5m, but in the meantime Gleeson, the contractor, was being pushed to get started.
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From the
Hackney Gazette:
THE final bill for repairs and improvements to the trouble-torn Clissold Leisure Centre is expected to be £13 million. The building work is scheduled to finish next month.
The latest estimate hikes Hackney's spending on the flagship centre in Stoke Newington to £44 million - four times the original budget.
Some of the money was recouped after legal action was taken against architects Hodder Associates, quantity surveyors Langton Davis Everest, building contractors Gleesons and structural engineers Whitby Bird.
The claims were settled out of court, but the council had to compensate former management company Leisure Connection for the fees and profits lost after the centre closed in 2002, just 21 months after it had opened.
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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.
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