I WOULD JUST LIKE TO GO FOR A SWIM!
There is no doubt that the long campaign to save Forest Hill Pools has obliged Lewisham Council to provide a more attractive replacement and those who were involved deserve our thanks.

But, we can not always have everything we want and to carry on campaigning to oppose demolition of the Victorian pool buildings when English Heritage decided that unlike the library they do not merit listed building status is going too far. Local people are being deprived of what many said they wanted ? a clean, light space with a gym and a pool inside it.

But now it is decision time and people should carefully consider the schemes on offer before making sure that they reply with the only voice that matters - the printed questionnaires or via http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/foresthillpools before August 8th.

Option 1 is the most realistic, it provides one pool a gym and a valuable social open space. The building allows for natural light over the pool itself and a terrace linking the library to a landscaped town square.

Option 2 gives the council or housing associations permission to build housing between 5 and 7 stories high on the park in order to finance a small training pool, with a new access road behind the library on Thorpewood Avenue. A caf?? and some retail space will also provided.

Option 3 This is the largest and most controversial project. It requires even more housing and retailing which could prove too much for other local traders. More gallery space and meeting rooms will decide the fate of ?difficult sites? like the Kirkdale or Brockley Rise Adult Centre.

Option 1 with the comment NO HOUSING ON THIS SITE is the positive answer that the council require from us. It will save the park for future development like a Training Pool with a better housing scheme elsewhere.

Two or three buildings are unnecessary, one well designed building has to be more cost effective. This is a challenge to the council to ensure that the final design is popular enough to earn its keep. Over developing the site may not leave room for the people who want to use it.

Delay and rising building costs could result with neither a new pool nor the old Victorian buildings; the commitment to a pool was made by the Mayor whose office ends in 2010. Options 2 and 3 hand the council our permission to develop the whole site for housing after 2010, which may after all be their own preferred option.

So the fight to save swimming in Forest Hill is not over yet. It is up to all of us to cast a careful and critical eye over these schemes and vote before August 8th to make sure that we are able to go for a swim in Forest Hill?s future as well as its past.