Month: January 2021

On 25 January 2021, the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee met online (recording here). The agenda items concerning tentative plans to re-open the bathing ponds and lido from 29 March 2021 and the proposed 2021 swimming charges, were buried late in a long agenda.  These items are to be found at 1’14” and 1’52” in the recording respectively. 

Despite some comments about the inflation-busting price rises for pond concession season tickets (21% for a six-month ticket and 15% for a 12-month ticket) and access to cash payment, the overall package was accepted. This will go to the next meeting of the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee on 24 February 2021 at 4pm (papers will be uploaded here as well as the online link, when they become available).

The latest developments on Heath finances and charging to swim are covered in the local press here (Ham & High 26 January 2021), here (Camden New Journal 28 January 2021) and here (Camden New Journal letters 28 January 2021).

A support scheme, the existence of which was used to justify the charging enforcement decisions in 2020, still has not happened. There is a limited list of concessions, based on a poor understanding of the benefits system or life on a low income. Ad hoc and belated approaches by the City to voluntary sector organisations in Camden will be of no assistance to the many swimmers who travel to the ponds from other boroughs (two thirds of swimmers according to our own survey, come from outside Camden).

At the Consultative Committee meeting on 25 January 2021, buried even deeper in the papers, there was reference to a feasibility study into charging to use toilets on the Heath, using contactless payment, which is also mentioned briefly in the meeting at 1′ 50″. There are no depths to which the City of London Corporation is not prepared to sink.  We know what happened when Heath toilets were closed during the first lockdown and it does not take a genius to work out what would happen if charging were to be  introduced.

If you would like to share your views on the toilet charging proposal (details are here on the last page) please contact the Chair of the Consultative and Management Committees Anne Fairweather at Anne.Fairweather@cityoflondon.gov.uk. Please copy your email to the Heath Superintendent Bob Warnock at Bob.Warnock@cityoflondon.gov.uk and klpamailbox@gmail.com.

The KLPA recently sent out a survey to members and beyond, to investigate the impact, so far, of the compulsory swimming charges introduced in 2020. We asked some questions about changes in economic status over the last year, as the impact of the pandemic could not be ignored.  We also asked respondents, voluntarily, to provide information about “protected characteristics” under the Equality Act such as ethnicity or disability. This is because the KLPA and the other swimmers’ associations are continuing to investigate the potential for discrimination claims arising from the new swimming charges.

The survey results have revealed the dramatic impact of the new swimming charges and the economic distress being experienced by many swimmers. The City of London has to date failed to introduce the promised support scheme and our survey results helped to reveal the complexities of need which would need to be addressed by such a scheme. Some headline figures of interest include:

1. The new charges have affected affordability for 58.33% of respondents.

2. Of those, 24.58% said they could no longer afford to swim, and 26.49% said they could not afford the upfront cost of a season ticket. 8.83% of respondents had been helped by friends or relatives to pay for tickets.

3. Half of all respondents had seen their income decline over the last year.

4. Respondents included 29.5% who were self-employed and 18% who were retired. A total of 16.84% of respondents received either means tested benefits or Covid-19 related support payments. A further 7.83% were either not entitled to such benefits or had no recourse to public funds. 

5. Unfortunately, 34% of respondents have been prevented by the new charges from swimming with family members and there has been an impact on accessing a safe space for 35.83% of respondents.

6. A disability was declared by 11.33% of respondents.

7. Just 33.17% of respondents lived in Camden so any support scheme yet to be developed by the City of London will need to take into account swimmers coming to the ponds from further afield.

8. Only three respondents live within the Square Mile so could hold any City of London representatives “democratically” accountable.

A full summary of the results can be seen here.  We will be contacting those swimmers who provided contact details shortly.

Thank you to everyone who completed the most recent survey, it has helped us to understand better what the impact has been so far of the compulsory swimming charges.

Earlier in the week members were updated on proposed increases to swimming charges in 2021, and following an opinion poll of members about this prospect in December 2020, the KLPA has already made its objections to the price rises clear, and will continue to do so.

Last week’s edition of Ham & High (14 January 2021) was full of Hampstead Heath business.  The budget row at the City of London is reported here and here.  Former KLPA Chair Nicky Mayhew has been busy again responding to disinformation from the Chair of the Management Committee (Anne Fairweather) in the letters page.  Finally there is a report here about the Hampstead Heath Act of 1871 which has protected the Heath from private development, so far.

The Camden New Journal has just reported further on the proposed budget cuts on 21 January 2021 here.

On 18 January 2021, representatives of the swimmers’ associations attended an online Swimming Forum meeting with the City of London. This was convened at short notice without a live public gallery (a link to a recording is supposed to follow). At the meeting the City attempted to side-line any detailed discussion of the proposed 2021 price rises, which are due to be put to the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee on 25 January 2021, by taking this subject as “Any Other Business”.

The Forum did see draft proposals to re-open the ponds from 29 March 2021, if an easing of the lockdown permits. The City intends to re-introduce time limited sessions and to use online pre-booking for most of these sessions. They will exclude 8- to 15-year-olds from the ponds again. This time it will be possible to use season tickets for online bookings, so that begs the question why it was not possible last year. The City has yet to select an online booking platform for 2021.  Details of the re-opening proposals can be seem here.

Forum members still attempted to hold a robust discussion of the proposed price increases for 2021/22, within the limits of the tightly controlled agenda. These proposals will go to the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee. Details can be seen here and here. Points to note include:

• The higher RPI inflation rate is being applied to swimming charges.
• The under-16s free access before 9.30 am is irrelevant to the ponds as they will be banned until late September.
• Season tickets will still be based on intrusive wristband technology, with personal data being passed to an external marketing company.
• The unrounded session-ticket prices are based on the assumption that most swimmers will use contactless card payments (£4.05 and £2.43). This is a further example of financial exclusion at the ponds, by making cash payment more difficult.
• No meaningful support scheme is in place and the existing concession arrangements still demonstrate ignorance of the lives of low income Londoners (many benefits excluded and no support is there for those who fall outside the benefits system).

The Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee meeting can be viewed live here on Monday 25 January 2021 at 5.30 pm.

KLPA members have recently responded to a survey on the impact of the 2020 charges and we will shortly be reporting back on the details of those findings. The coming year is set to be a further stage in exclusion at the bathing ponds.

It is 150 years since the Hampstead Heath Act of 1871 was passed in order to protect this valuable green space, close to central London, from commercialisation and development.

Since 1897 the Heath & Hampstead Society has defended the Heath against further encroachments, and in their most recent newsletter you can see an article by former KLPA Chair Nicky Mayhew here (page 22) about our recent, and entirely avoidable, battles with the City of London Corporation concerning swimming charges. The response from Anne Fairweather (current Chair of their Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee) seeks to take credit for concessions hard fought for in 2020 by the KLPA.

On 7 January 2021, the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee held an additional meeting to discuss the outline of budget cuts of 12% across the City of London Corporation for 2021/22. There was a surprisingly heated debate by committee members, objecting to the imposed budget cuts and seeking to raise their objections with the City’s Resource Allocation Sub-Committee which meets later this month. The Management Committee appeared incensed that their views might be ignored (in much the same way that they ignored the views of the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee in March 2020 concerning swimming charges). The full meeting can be viewed here. Interesting contributions are seen from Ruby Sayed and Karina Dostalova (Chair of the Management Committee at the time that the Consultative Committee was over-ruled).

Currently we cannot access the part of the Heath which brings us together as an association, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond. The bathing ponds will remain closed for the foreseeable future due to the requirements of a third national lockdown to combat the Coronavirus. Our campaigning activity continues, even if constricted in scope by the terms of a national lockdown. Fair access to open spaces has become more important than ever in the last year.

If you have not already done so there is still time to complete our survey on the economic impacts of the current swimming charges here.  Please forward this link to any other swimmers you know who may have been affected by the charges.

The survey closes at midday on Sunday 17 January 2021.

This evening the Prime Minister has announced a third national lockdown in England. 

The announcement means that the bathing ponds and Lido on Hampstead Heath will close with immediate effect.

We urge all KLPA members to observe the terms of this lockdown, and to avoid attempts to swim in any of the ponds on Hampstead Heath as this puts lifeguards and other Heath staff at risk. 

The new variants of the Coronavirus are highly infectious. Positive tests across the UK have exceeded 50,000 for each of the last seven days. Hospitals are under extreme pressure, and this third national lockdown is intended to prevent our NHS from being overwhelmed. Please continue to support its efforts.

Many KLPA members are employed in the NHS and other essential services. Together all of our efforts matter, whether working in those essential services or remaining at home to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus.