Local people have worked very hard to campaign to keep swimming in Forest Hill and people have voted for one or more of the following reasons (all no brainers and little to do with politics in my book):

Town Centre location - aiding regeneration
close to station and other parts of Forest Hill e.g standstead rd and HH
It's actually in Forest hill - Sydenham already has a pool
Little confidence that WW will be built any time soon
WW not suitable as it's off the main drag - dark walk, passing a closed school in the evenings.

The politics seems to be sitting with the decision makers [/i]in the Mayors camp from where I sit!

I'm not too sure what you are getting at but, for reference, my post above was simply questioning why the council see Willow way as inappropriate for live/work ("...Furthermore, residential use on Willow Way is considered undesirable in the surrounding context of commercial properties.") while a live/work development was allowed on Clyde Terrace (which is located near industrial units).

I have always regarded Willow Way as an odd place to choose for relocating the swimming pool when there is already an established and eminently suitable location in Forest Hill. It seemed to be justified only in terms of timescale/cost - expedient, rather than desirable. Hopefully these reasons have now gone.

Have they changed their mind? I'm not sure why I am getting so involved in this discussion, but Michael's post (although perhaps rather an over-long reply to mine) merely laid out the proposals that had been arrived at with Geoff Lowe's assistance. I think it's a nice idea, but my impression was that the council had said it was not appropriate - and had not since changed their minds. Unless I'm missing something.
My earlier post that you refer to is not 72, by the way, but post 1165

Precisely.The council deemed it an innaproprite place for live/work but now they have changed their mind and Live/work will now be built on willow way.
An about face.

Go to the Mayors Cabinet tonight all will be revealed to your benefit I am quite sure and all will become clearer.I know the outcome so I won6t be there.

The planning department have not changed their views about live/work. They continue to see the site as inappropriate for any residential or for a combination of live/work and residential.

This is why we wish to see a change in the planning desigation for the site to allow mixed use development. This is something that is currently being developed in the strategy for 5 sites in the north of the borough but none in the south. The fact that it is planned to 'tweak the system' in this way for five other sites shows that this is perfectly possible if done for the right reasons. Planning laws can be changed and we are in the process of moving from the UDP to a new LDF.

There has been no large input of cash from anybody or any promise of cash from anybody in the future. The council planning department often refer potential developers to Jeff when they are interested in developing live/work as he has a reputation for good quality live/work developments. It was this expertise that Jeff and others were able to bring to the discussion (not a bag full of cash) and that has started to change opinions over the potential value of the Willow Way site for employment use.

It is interesting to note that davhel52 already knows what the mayor will decide, unlike the rest of us!

Looks like davhel52's prophecy was correct!

Mildly curious to know how, but more important to celebrate the funds agreed by the mayor to finally (and quickly if his comments were correct) get swimming back onto Dartmouth Road!

We missed the pub suggested (Wetherspoons in Catford) but had a curry after a brief Guiness at the Blythe Hill Tavern on a celebratory walk back to FH.

Good news!

As I said Foresters.I am no fool but I will refrain from saying "I told you so"

Now you can all spend your time Rubbishing the Mayors Further plans for other projects around Lewisham.

This is great news for Forest Hill. The pool will now be developed on the existing site. This will give us a pool in the shortest possible timescale and in the right location, something that almost everybody in Forest Hill can support.

Options for Willow Way will be explored, but the mayor did say that he was impressed with the proposals for live/work and that these should be part of the consideration for this site.

Hopefully Louise House can be kept in community use, but this will take a lot of work from the community. We did get the mayor to allow council officers to help develop these plans for Louise House. Please could anybody who is interested in getting involved in the proposals for turning Louise House into an arts centre, contact me (send a PM or email me at michael@foresthillsociety.com) and you can become involved in the next great project for Forest Hill.

Mayor's website with official confirmation of the decision.

I thought people might be interested in this, which I got this morning. It is the main part of an email from Sir Steve Bullock.

"I am pleased to inform you that I have given the go ahead for a new swimming pool to be built on the old Dartmouth Road site incorporating the existing front of the building into the design.

In recent weeks there have been significant changes to the amount of money that the Council has available for major building projects, including an allocation of ?5.5 million from the Government. Given this, I ordered a thorough review of commitments which has released the additional funds that has allowed me to secure the future of swimming in Forest Hill.

All along, my focus has been to have swimming in this area as soon as possible. Once it became clear in the past few weeks that we could build this new pool and keep the frontage, I knew this would be the best decision to make for everyone who lives in this area. I'm pleased that we are able to go ahead with the new building projects elsewhere in the borough AND the swimming pool - this is great news for Lewisham.

I have instructed Council officers to begin work immediately so that the project to bring swimming back to Forest Hill will be completed as soon as possible.

No doubt you'll be aware that I've received a huge amount of correspondence on this issue, and I've listened to the strong opinions raised in the consultation process. I am confident that the decision I've taken will ensure the return of swimming to Forest Hill in an affordable manner and as quickly as possible."

That's really excellent news. The next stage is to find a suitable and affordable design that is sympathetic to the existing structure!!!

WW was always a cul-de-sac option - I dont believe there ever was going to be a pool built there.
However the consultation's ambiguous result (without the clarity of a postcode breakdown...) gave the council the option to park the whole process down there for a few years. And yet they did not take it.

On the one hand maybe the council have finally woken up to the issue and how damaging it is to them locally.

More likely they have calculated that a conservative government is just round the corner and will be cutting services back severely. The new pools project will be terminated at that point.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not optimistic that our pools are any closer to being returned. But hey, we'll have someone else to blame.

Congratulations to Michael, the Forest Hill Society and everyone else who worked for this result. I voted for WW, not because I don't believe the existing site isn't the better of the two, but because I thought the top priority was to get something built as soon as possible. I'm very pleased that it looks as if everyone's objectives are going to be met.

As a matter of interest, has the issue of the future of the Victorian facade been resolved?

According to Tim Walder "Once it became clear in the past few weeks that we could build this new pool and keep the frontage" suggests yes, the facade is staying!

With reference to the Mayor's comments about WW and the fact they knew they would have planning issues on this site, suggests the result of the the consultation is not worth the paper it's written on, as WW was highly unlikely to be the quicker option for swimming is FH anyway.

Why are you accusing me?
I don't have any intention to 'Rubbish' the mayor's plans for other projects - what makes you think I have?

However, I am interested to know how you seemingly had prior knowledge of the mayor's decision and the keenness he expressed for the live/work proposition for Willow Way.

I was talking collectively.

And how I know or not is my business and shall so remain.

Robin,
Thanks for your comments. I think you speak for many people who voted for Willow Way who will be more than happy with the pool where it should be as long as it does not lead to a delay.

The facade will stay to please those who campaigned for the retention of the frontage. But the building behind will be based on the fantastic design from A&M (who build the Horniman extension). I am sure that with ?12.5m we should get a pool of which Forest Hill can be proud.

Gingernuts,
I believe that the report to the mayor in February under-estimated the planning problems with moving swimming to Willow Way and deliberately weighted the scores by financial rather than what was easiest from a planning perspective. It was only when the Forest Hill Society looked in detail at the planning regulation that some of the relevant issues became clear. This included contributions on this forum relating to London policies on swimming that I had not previously read.

At the same time the case for developing Willow Way for employment was extremely important, not just in benefitting the council financially, but because it made a strong case that swimming would not generate maximum employment on the site, making the planning issue much harder for the council to fight.

davhel52:

Why would those in the non-partisan (yes, that's right - non-partisan) sections of the community who have been working to get our pools in the right place in a reasonable timeframe have any interest in what the Mayor is doing elsewhere in the borough - especially now that we know it will not impact on the delivery of the pools?

Your attitude over the last couple of days is a breathtaking insult to the many people (including a number of Labour people, and council officials), who have worked incredibly hard to come up with creative ways to enable the (Labour) Mayor to deliver on an election promise.

In general, you sound paranoid and sour. You sound as though you would have preferred us not to get what we all wanted, even once it was possible, just because it wasn't your idea. Have you got no sense of how much damage you do to your own cause when you go around slandering people everyone else can see acting out of solid good intentions? It does not win the movement friends. (Maybe this is the point? - the only way your peevish ravings make any sense is if you are a Tory agent provocateur)

If you want to see conspiracies everywhere, here's the link: Enjoy.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/X-Files-Complete...689&sr=8-2