Leisure services in danger despite Streatham Hub deal

Lambeth Council and Tesco's have finally signed a deal over the Streatham Hub, the area around the swimming pool, the ice rink and bus garage, in return for building a great big Tesco's next to Morrison's and few hundred yards away from Safeway.



The plans involve having a temporary ice ring and swimming pool on Streatham Common, so using up valuable green space, while building goes ahead.

Or did it? Campaigners gave the plans an angry reception on Monday night at the Town Hall while the council's legal officer said that secretary of state had to be consulted over the Streatham Common usage. Also in 2005 an agreement was announced so, while hoping we will get a new swimming pool and ice rink, I'll celebrate when it happens.


Pool closures
Streatham Pool was closed at the end of last year because the building had fallen into a state of disrepair as Tesco, the council and Transport for London spent 10 years failing to reach agreement.

The closure comes at the same time as Clapham Pool closed because of rebuilding and the cutting of the hours at Brixton Pool. Neighbouring Southwark isn't much better. It has closed two out of four swimming pools including Camberwell, which I frequently use along with Brixton.

During the past 10 years leisure services have been run into the ground while councils have sold off services, land and buildings to private companies such as Tesco's.

And with all the main parties talking about "deeper cuts than under Thatcher", this privatisation will only worsen, despite Lambeth Labour promising four new leisure centres in its manifesto.

My Anticapitalist Manifesto calls for: free leisure and youth centres

, which offer: sports, recreation, drama, dance, art, music, computing and language courses. This should be paid for by taxing the rich. 

Hat Tip for Monday night news Jason Cobb at http://onionbagblog.com/