Willow Way would be a perfect site for Live/Work units like we have in Havelock Walk and in Rollins Street in the north of Lewisham. Live/Work units are increasingly in demand, even during the current housing market problems, and so they are the best way to cross-subsidise the pools. They can generate significantly more employment on the Willow Way site (which is a perfect site for Live/Work), keep employment on the existing pools site, and a new pool would revitalise Dartmouth Road shops, adding more employment.

A&M came up with a good design for the new pool which does not overlook neighbouring properties and which keeps the existing frontage. As I have suggested previously the cost of building the new pool with or without the existing frontage is about the same, so why not please everybody and leave it there? But the argument is not about keeping the frontage, it is about providing the best possible leisure facilities, at the best possible cost, in the shortest amount of time, with the support of the community, and safeguarding the future of Forest Hill as a district town centre.

At present the Forest Hill Society and other groups are doing everything we can to get a better version of option 2. We do not want to wait until 2015 to get a pool in Forest Hill and as I have outlined above, it should be possible to fund the right solution in the right location.

The Willow Way site moves swimming out of Forest Hill town centre, it will damage the local area and the local economy and, in the long term, I do not believe it is economically viable as a site for leisure.

What we are proposing is a sensible solution that is genuinely better than a pool on Willow Way. As long as the principle of building live/work on Willow Way can be agreed, this will be able to cross subsidise the pool more effectively than the Dartmouth Road site cross-subsidising the Willow Way Pool through social housing. All of these points were put to the Lewisham Council at the mayor and cabinet (see http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2009/02...binet.html) as well as before and after this meeting.

The economic, leisure, employment, and timescales all work best with this proposed solution, it meets the requirements of everybody in the community. I hope that Lewisham Council are seriously considering how they can make this an option in the consultation, rather than giving us two second rate options.

You can help support this proposal by signing the petition at: http://keepswimming.notlong.com
I would also recommend attending the Forest Hill local assembly
WEDNESDAY 25TH MARCH 7.30PM, Living Springs International Church, 8-10 Devonshire Road, SE23 3TJ