COUNCIL bosses admit they have lost key documents used as a basis for the decision to close
Ladywell Pool.
Lewisham Council says it no longer has access to a selection of papers relating to a public consultation carried out five years ago on the future of the centre.
It has already claimed it used the missing consultation results to decide the Ladywell Leisure Centre should be moved into Lewisham town centre.
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The Save Ladywell Pool group has accused the council of failing to justify its decision to close the pool.
In October last year, the council said it had decided to relocate the Ladywell centre following a consultation in late 1999 or 2000.
Save Ladywell Pool campaign chairman Max Calo asked it to provide him with papers relating to the consultation through the Freedom of Information Act.
Mr Calo received some documents but was told "some of the papers requested" were no longer in the public domain.
And in a written response to last Wednesday's council meeting, he was informed the council has supplied all of the papers in its possession.
Mr Calo said: "It is completely unacceptable they cannot find these papers to back up their
answers.
"One of the key activities of a council is to supply people with information to justify decisions it makes. It is misleading people. It seems like it has based its decision on papers it could not have even seen."
The date of the consultation has also been called into question.
In October last year the council said a public meeting took place in late 1999 but in last Wednesday's answer, it said the meeting was held on March 13, 2000.
Mr Calo says he has not
received any documents which provide a record of what happened at this meeting.
He claims to have only been sent papers from later meetings held in 2002 and 2003, after the consultation was finished.
A council spokesman said: "The consultation report provides a summary of information gained from the questionnaire.
"As it is the function of this type of report to summarise the information gained during a consultation, the report on the Ladywell Leisure Centre was one of the tools used in deciding the type of centre to be built when moving the pool to a new site."
Ladywell Leisure Centre, in Lewisham High Street, is due to be demolished in 2007 to make way for a new secondary school.
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