Council is set for disaster over pool

10:47am Tuesday 9th November 2004

The Save Ladywell Pool Campaign and the New School Campaign have condemned the mayor for not putting any effort into finding an alternative site to the Ladywell Leisure Centre for a new school in the north of the borough.

The council's planning and education officers took the easy way out and recommended rejecting all the alternatives proposed by the New School Campaign and others.

Their report emphasises uncertainty about whether certain sites could be purchased within the proposed timescale without actually investigating them.

It contains assertions about secondary schools not being "desirable neighbours to residential, office or retail development" when the reality is estate agents use proximity of schools as a selling point.

The reason given for rejecting a school at Convoy's Wharf, where 3,500 new homes are planned, is it wasn't included earlier and to bring it up now might cause difficulties.

Why wasn't this considered at the beginning of a project which foresees between 800 and 2,400 children living on the site?

But the most important consideration is the one the report leaves out all together: the new school needs to be in the north of the borough, where there is a shortfall of around 350 places each year.

Ladywell Leisure Centre is not in the right place and is too small (according to government guidelines) for a school able to provide a balanced curriculum.

They are about to make the problem worse. And to achieve this disaster in a spectacular way, they do it by demolishing the best swimming facility in Lewisham.

This council's action only makes us more determined. Come and show support at the joint public meeting on December 2 at Ladywell Leisure Centre.

Max Calo
Secretary of the Save Ladywell Pool Campaign
John Hamilton
Secretary of the New School Campaign

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