I saw the Mayor at a school event yesterday, he advised me that if we wanted to keep the building in its existing format we would have to lose the swimming pools and they would have to fill in the holes underneath.

He also said that they were going to use the Louise House site to build housing so as to fund the project, but I didn't get a chance to ask him why the money for this project couldn't be funded in a different way, so we could retain the building and have a swimming pool on Louise House and incorporate the building at the same time.

I have worked on a number of hotel refurbishments in the past and I would have thought that there would be some way to firm costs for a project such as this, rather than just opt for demolition.

I am strongly against demolition, (especially of the frontage). Modern does not necessarily mean better, The Bridge being a prime example, where the water is slimey, the changing rooms dirty and the locks don't work because all the keys have been stolen, the building is already very tatty and extremely uninspiring. (there is also no creche, unlike our neighbours at Beckenham Spa, where the existing building and site has been very successfully modernised)

Also it was such a shame that when Forest Hill Sports Centre was built that they didn't include a pool, there used to be an open air one which utilised one of the playgrounds! But that was built in the 1960's, and obviously being more forward thinking we do things much better now.