Subject: FRIENDS OF MARSHALL STREET LEISURE CENTRE
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:51:10 +0100
From: "Alan Read" <AlanR@...>

Dear Friend,

 

We hope that you are enjoying the summer and reflecting upon how much more enjoyable it might be were we able to make use of the Leisure Centre.

 

This is to keep you informed of forthcoming events.

 

LONDON OPEN HOUSE 17^th/18^th SEPTEMBER 2005

 

Once again, Marshall Street will be opened for the London Open House weekend

- 17th and 18th September.  As with previous years, The Friends of Marshall Street will be manning the event with representatives from Westminster Council.  We need your help to ensure that this event runs smoothly and we would appreciate any volunteers for either or both afternoons.  We primarily need people to try to ensure that all visitors register and let us know what they can contribute to the campaign.

 

Please let us know what you can do and please let people know about the weekend.  In the past we have had over 1,000 visitors over the weekend and we hope that we will see even more over this weekend.  It is important to remind everyone just how loved Marshall Street Baths are.

 

The Open House weekend will also be important as it is likely that Westminster Council will take the opportunity to show new drawings for the redevelopment of the Marshall Street Leisure Centre.  It is essential that as many people as possible see these plans and react to them quickly.

 

PLANS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT

 

We hope that many of you will have gone along to the last brief period of consultation.  If you did, you will know that at present it looks as though the main swimming pool will be restored and returned to council control.  It will then be opened to the public in the same way as other council run pools are.  It looks as though the second pool will be lost in order to increase 'dry side' facilities - not ideal for those of us who believe that there should be a way to keep both pools

 

However, we have seen proposals for redevelopment come and go.  Remember it is 8 years now since the pool was closed for "refurbishment" (due to take up to 2 years!).  Until the pool is reopened to the public, we cannot afford to let up on the pressure on the council and there is still a long way to go before water is in the pool.

 

The council has indicated that it hopes that planning permissions will be applied for in Autumn and that it will all be rubberstamped by the council in January/February, with a start date some time after that.  We hope that this will be the case as delays can so often lead to inertia taking over and us having to wait another decade...So now is the time to be active in the campaign.

 

We look forward to seeing many of you at Open House - remember, now is not the time to be complacent - we need to keep pushing until the doors are reopened to the public!

 

With very good wishes,

 

The Friends of Marshall Street.