Petition Tag - sydenham

Lewisham Council is proposing to move the swimming pools from Dartmouth Road to Willow Way in Sydenham.

We believe that the new swimming pools for Forest Hill should be a high quality design, retaining the frontage block, on the Dartmouth Road site and built in the near future.

The Council is proposing two options to replace Forest Hill Pools. The first is an attractive modern design which places new pools behind the existing frontage block on Dartmouth Road. This design is favoured by local people, but the Mayor claims that it is not affordable and cannot be built before 2015 and maybe not at all. The other option is to move the pools to the industrial estate in Willow Way in Sydenham SE26. This is unpopular with local people, but it is claimed by the Mayor that it could be built soon and more affordably.

What is so good about Dartmouth Road? This site is at the civic heart of Forest Hill and has been the home of swimming for 120 years. It has good transport links and new pools here would give the town centre a lift and help the businesses along Dartmouth Road to thrive again. This plan will reuse the pools frontage block, a familiar local landmark. We believe that this plan can be made affordable if the Council will look at alternative approaches which we can present.

What is wrong with Willow Way? The site is unsuitable and is situated in a narrow side street. Moving the pools away to this site would threaten businesses on Dartmouth Road and tear the heart out of the town centre. The old pools building would be left derelict for the foreseeable future.

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Forest Hill Pools in Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill in the London Borough of Lewisham were the oldest continuously used swimming pools in the United Kingdom until their closure due to problems with the roof in 2005. They were a popular and well used local facility.

They have remained closed since then while the Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, and his Cabinet took a decision about their future. In February 2008 the council decided that refurbishment was not viable. The current plan is for the pools to be completely demolished in about July 2008. As part of the current plan the neighbouring Victorian former Girls' Industrial Home known as Louise House will also be demolished. The council's intention is to reuse the whole site and to partially fund the new pool by allowing a developer to build housing on part of the site.

The objections to this are:

1) No consideration is being given to retaining any part of the historic buildings and Victorian streetscape. Attempts to persuade the council to look at draft plans which would seek to incorporate or reuse parts of the historic structures have been completely ignored.

2) Demolition is taking place before any new plans or designs are published. Local people will know what they are losing, but not what they are getting.

3) No architectural competition is taking place to ensure good design of the new building (whether reusing historic structures or not).

LATEST
This petition appears to have met with success in its limited aim: to prevent immediate demolition. The Council has undertaken not to demolish the buildings before September. However, they have now published three alternative options for the site which can be viewed at http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/CouncilAndDemocracy/HavingYourSay/RedevelopmentOfForestHillPools/

All of these options involve demolition of all of the heritage buildings. A new campaign called Save the Face of Forest Hill has started to ask the Council not to demolsih these buildings at all, but to incorporate them in designs for new pools. For details see the new petition at http://www.gopetition.com/online/20563.html.

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Officially, Transport for London and Southern Railways are closing the entrance to the Sydenham Station Platform One, in preparation of the introduction of the Oyster Card system. Unofficially, they are too tight-fisted to pay for a second barrier.

At many London Underground or DLR stations passengers can “touch in” to a new Oyster Card reader - our preferred solution - but they don’t trust Sydenham residents.

So, if you have ever struggled to carry a case or pram from Platform Two, have limited mobility, or just don’t like climbing stairs – you have a choice: Either you can do nothing, and within the next few weeks you will lose this entrance for ever – or you can fight the proposal.

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When the new East London Line arrives in 2010, it will mean severe and unacceptable cuts to our existing train services to and from London Bridge. We are asking for your help to fight these cuts by signing our petition.

- Direct trains to and from London Bridge are likely to be cut to four trains per hour.
- This is a reduction from the current service of six trains off peak and more at peak times.
- There will be an extra eight trains per hour on the East London Line stopping at Sydenham and Forest Hill but these will only be four carriages long, with limited seating available.
- Cuts are proposed to the Clapham Junction and Victoria service from our stations, possibly removing this service entirely.
- With these proposed cuts it is likely that London Bridge services will become even more congested than at present.

It is vital that we keep our existing level of services to and from London Bridge

We are not opposed to the new East London line - we warmly welcome it - but this should not be introduced at the cost of existing services.

This petition has been produced by the Forest Hill Society and is supported by the Sydenham Society.

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