COMMENTS ON CONSULTANCY: THE CASE OF ST. GEORGE’S
Southwark Council ordered
a Consultancy to compare and study the way in which Seven Islands
As indicated before,
previous to the consultancy Southwark Council ran the facility in to the ground
making it function without ventilation risking the health of the users as
employees were entitled to open windows and doors in winter, taking away the
diving boards, closing the mothers and toddlers small pool and basically not
spending anything on Seven Islands Leisure Centre until the desired consultancy
had been performed, and of course the same advises that a large amount of money
must be spent.
The consultant estimates
that to fully refurbish Seven Islands
So in this document we
want to compare our facility at Seven Islands
Our own
consultancy: The similar case of St. George’s
This is an example of a
pool which will have a similar client base as our leisure centre in Rotherhithe
when the Master Plan has been implemented.
It will be composed of a
considerable amount of local workers, extended amount of school children and
young people and a larger amount of residents.
So finally this is the
ultimate comparison with our closest competitor: St. Georges in Tower Hamlets
on The Highway, the other side of Rotherhithe Tunnel.
You can see for yourself
the degree of under-investment at Seven Islands
Just like our pool, St.
Georges is an Imperial Pool or a 33 meter pool, so to swim one of the most
common competition distances of 100 meters 3 lengths are required.
During the Olympics it was
the home base of the Russian Synchronous Swimming Team.
Tom Daley teaches people
how to dive there BECAUSE unlike Southwark they have kept and updated their
diving boards!
Schools and the general
public as in our pool mix quite easily because of its longer length and is not
a frustrating 18 meters only for the general public when the shallow end is
cordoned off for lessons.
This frustrating18 meters
is what we would find if it were a mere Standard European/ International 25
meter pool and the shallow end is cordoned off for lessons.
St. Georges pools are very
well used, timetables are fixed and it has a big intake of workers from the
City who swim there before going in to work and during their lunch hour and
after work, so to promote health and physical activity it opens between 7 am
and 9 pm.
Unlike Southwark, it has a
smaller teaching pool, very practical and useful for smaller children and for
teaching and is of a generous size.
Unlike Southwark school
children aren’t the only main beneficiaries of a policy to promote physical
activity, the pool is also intended for adults and for children who are good
swimmers too.
Unlike Southwark St.
Georges were the last to introduce a membership fee and also their access costs
have always been historically lower than at Seven Islands
This fantastic pool at St.
Georges may not be an Olympic pool but if Southwark Council were to replace our
33 metre pool by a paltry 25 meter pool, then St. Georges would be for all of
us the best pool in the area and swimmers from Rotherhithe would obviously
prefer the longer Imperial pool at St. Georges to the “new” European standard
25 meters one with hardly any depth.
The effect of Southwark
under-investment in the health of its population couldn’t be more marked when
comparing both sites and their policies. The different timetables and their
stability alone speak volumes.
Now that Seven Islands
seems to be condemned, and a suitable negative consultancy report has been
provided which more or less assures the Council that it will be able to perform
the land grab of the valuable land of Seven Islands Leisure Centre for
development, Southwark is going to invest 2 million pounds in to Seven Islands
Leisure centre!
This investment is to keep
the Centre going for up to 5 years, and though this document mentions that then
the Council will determine what use to give the Seven Islands
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