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On Sunday afternoon we will be joining Forum ‘71 and the Hampstead Men’s Pond Association (HMPA) to protest against the new enforced charging regime. This event, whilst following Covid- secure guidelines, will also be a social one with an opportunity to share ideas.

Please come and join us – wear a brightly coloured swimming cap if you have one, bring paper-chains two meters long and placards – the theme is ‘locked out’. This will be an inclusive, enjoyable, safe event that will hopefully have some impact.

The schedule is as follows:

2 – 3pm: Several groups of a maximum of six people each, led by members of HMPA, KLPA and Forum ’71, will share information on what has happened to date: –

1. A presentation of the survey findings (you can read them here). 
2. A talk about canvassing, HMPA history and future events.
3. A presentation of the Forum ’71 manifesto.
4. An explanation of the Forum ’71 approach.
5. Media articles.
6. A brief history of KLPA and the action over the past few months.

3 – 3.30pm: We will encircle the Pond, staying two metres away from each other and divided by ribbons or paper chains. We will then pose for the press photographer!

4pm: Disperse

We hope to see you there!

The Ladies’ Pond is currently closed due to a blockage in a sewer that runs across the Heath, causing a sewage leak within the woodland north of the Pond meadow.

Thames Water have been on-site and are currently jetting the blocked sewer working from the Stock Pond. The Conservation Supervisor was also in attendance and the Hampstead Heath team have promised to keep us informed as the work to unblock the sewer progresses. 

This afternoon independent water testing for both the Ladies’ Pond and the Men’s Pond took place but it takes 48 hours to obtain the results. Unfortunately the Ladies’ Pond will not be able to be reopened until Thames Water have resolved the sewer leak and have received the results of the water quality test results. 

Cancelled sessions from today have already been refunded. Tomorrow morning the pre-booked sessions for Saturday and Sunday will be refunded.  

The Heath team say that they are working hard to minimise the disruption and inconvenience to swimmers.

The City of London has agreed its proposed measures for charging and management of the Ponds for the winter season. (KLPA members have previously been sent a summary of these proposals.) 

1. Online pre-booking of swims, will end on 21 September 2020. The City argued it was necessary to control numbers during the summer season when the ponds re-opened following the COVID-19 lockdown.  They believe the reduced swimmer numbers during winter will be easier to control on a one-in-one-out basis.
2. The controversial “Option 3” to enforce charges will be introduced in full, collected either through season ticket payments or day charges (£4 full price and £2.40 concession). In addition to contactless payment cash payment is being maintained for the time being using the old contribution posts.
3. Season tickets will take the form of electronic wristbands to be scanned on the way in. Existing season ticket holders will be sent their wristbands and sales of new season tickets will resume in time for the winter season until late October before handover to the Winter Swimmers’ Club.
4. The telephone “support line” (020 7332 3779) will remain open 9 -11 am on weekdays for those who do not have internet access to purchase season tickets.
5. The “Support Scheme”, replacing the planned Hardship Fund, was approved. There was some acknowledgement that the list of benefits for concessions was out of date. 

Free swim sessions for under 16s and over 60s from 7.00-9.30 am were agreed, though there was some acknowledgement that the timings may be problematic e.g. pressure when other swimmers are heading for work, and it clashes with times for free travel for older swimmers.

Our campaign against the enforcement of inflated charges continues. The KLPA is liaising actively with several local MPs who are supportive and is working with solicitors Leigh Day to identify potential discrimination claims.
 
An excellent summary of our reasons for opposing the new charging regime can be seen here in an email exchange initiated by former KLPA Chair Nicky Mayhew, ahead of the Management Committee meeting. 

On Monday 14 September 2020 at 5-6pm, local newspaper Ham & High is holding an online Question & Answer session with Anne Fairweather (Management Committee Chair) and City of London officers Colin Buttery and Bob Warnock. This will be about the new charging regime and management of the bathing ponds.  Details of how to register and submit a question can be found here.  Please contact Michael.Boniface@Archant.co.uk.

Just prior to the Ponds reopening post lockdown, a new campaign group emerged, separate to any of the Pond Associations, called Forum ‘71. This group is actively campaigning primarily for the reversal of ‘compulsory payments’ for entry to the Ponds, whilst trying to both maintain and preserve the ethos and integrity of these special places. 
 
As Forum ’71 was campaigning for very similar results to the KLPA, at the start of the summer the KLPA committee decided to maintain informal contact with them. Two KLPA committee members, Harriet Wills and Lucy Zanetti, met with two members of Forum ’71 to create a direct channel of communication between the two organisations, to prevent splitting or misunderstanding and hopefully in the longer term trying to find a way to integrate our voices in a potent way. After several meetings this group grew, with Highgate Men’s Pond Association committee members Geoff Goss and Onur Teymur joining. 

Invaluably Forum ‘71 continued to organise several protests, serving to keep the campaign alive in people’s minds and in the press. It was at this point we thought it would be important for us to find a way to come together more openly by forming an ‘umbrella’ protest, unifying to say ‘no to compulsory payments’ (allowing for a right to choose to pay).  We developed the concept for the protest  ‘Locked Out!’
 
Forum ’71 invite you to be part of this protest (see flyer attached here) on 20 September 2-4pm at the Boating Pond.

– Due to current regulations on such gatherings we are planning to break up into groups of no more than six people situated at various locations over the Heath in the hope to have a widespread impact. Social distancing will also be observed and we will be encouraging participants to wear and bring their own masks with a variety of pond related slogans.  

– Bring placards of your own making, come along with a clear message and positive attitude to promote our cause and celebrate the ponds in our lives. 

– We will be behaving respectfully at all times to Heath staff and members of the wider public.

We hope to see you there!

Should you need more details please contact contact@saveourponds.org (not the KLPA email address).

Below is the viewing link for the next meeting of the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Management Committee which will take place virtually at 4pm on 9 September 2020. The papers for the meeting are attached here.

Please continue to send your written comments on the revised proposals for the Winter Swimming Season (summary attached here) to the Committee Chair and Clerk:

Anne.Fairweather@cityoflondon.gov.uk
leanne.murphy@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Thank you for your continued support and efforts.

Please also note that the campaign group Forum 71 (Save Our Ponds), which is also opposed to the enforcement of increased swimming charges, is currently running an online petition via 38 Degrees which can be seen and signed here.

Earlier this week we posted feedback from the recent Swimming Forum meeting along with details of the City of London’s proposals for managing the bathing ponds during the winter season from 21 September 2020.  Those proposals will now be put to the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Management Committee when it meets virtually on 9 September 2020.  We have again asked for a link to a live public gallery and await the City’s reply.

KLPA members have continued to provide detailed feedback on these proposals.  Thank you to everyone who has written to the City of London about their concerns.  Already this has made some impact e.g. cash payments being accepted for day tickets at the ponds for the time being instead of contactless-only payment.  There is still much to change, and we are asking members once again to use their commitment to and knowledge of the Ponds to communicate with the decision makers.

Please find attached here a proforma email which can be used to send to the Management Committee before it meets. The email is addressed to the Chair of the Committee (Anne Fairweather) and the Committee Clerk (Leanne Murphy).  It contains some of the key concerns but can be added to and personalised with your own views.

The City of London has today launched its own survey and wants to know about your recent swimming experiences, so please do give your feedback here.

Thank you for your continued commitment.  The KLPA is a membership-based organisation and the input of individual members is essential.

On 25 September representatives of all the Swimmers’ Associations attended an online meeting with City of London representatives.  Please find attached here the main proposals which were discussed and which will now be put forward to the Hampstead Heath Management Committee when it meets on 9 September.  The Swimming Forum recording can now be seen here.

1. The City of London is persisting in enforcing the inflated charges to swim, despite our many pleas for them to show humanity in the midst of a pandemic and during a period of economic crisis.
2. Swimming charges will be collected either through an electronic wristband for season tickets or contactless payment for day charges (wristbands may be introduced for day tickets as well).  Both methods give rise to concerns about privacy.
3. The insistence on contactless payment will exclude anyone who does not have access to this type of payment or who is worried about her privacy.  Transactions listed on bank statements may risk harm to women living with coercive controlling domestic abusers.
4. The City of London promotes the season tickets as a cost effective option – for now.  City representatives did not appreciate that the up-front payment for a season ticket, even at concessionary levels, is prohibitive to swimmers on low incomes.  Also there is no guarantee that season ticket charges will be “reasonable” after they are reviewed for 2021/22.
5. The “Support Scheme” (the re-branded non-existent Hardship Fund used to justify the Option 3 decision last March) is not fit for purpose as the list of who would qualify for a concession is out of date and limited.  For example, people receiving Universal Credit are not mentioned.
6. The other two Support Scheme options (partnership working and time credits) appear to be an attempt to define the deserving poor and make swimmers work for their support, in the spirit of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.
7. The proposed free swimming for under 16s and over 60s before 9.30 am has produced mixed reactions from our members.  The proposed time frame will put pressure on those trying to swim before work, and will contradict the times of day when free travel on public transport is available for older swimmers.

The KLPA has in previous communications referred to exclusion, social cleansing and gentrification at the bathing ponds.  We encourage members to continue sending their concerns to Hampstead Heath managers at the addresses below, and to keep writing to their local representatives.

Anne.Fairweather@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Bob.Warnock@cityoflondon.gov.uk
HH-Swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Please copy your emails to klpamailbox@gmail.com

The KLPA now has an official Twitter account which you can access here. Please follow our tweets for all the latest updates on the Ponds.

Representatives of the Hampstead Heath swimmers’ associations are due to attend an online meeting with City of London managers on Tuesday 25 August 2020 at 5.30 pm.  The City of London has again refused to set up a virtual public gallery for this meeting (despite our repeated requests), but a recording will apparently be made available on their website after the meeting. We will circulate the link once we receive it.

Papers for this meeting were only circulated late on Friday afternoon and include the draft proposals for charging and managing swimmer numbers for the winter season from 21 September 2020, attached here.

When the City of London decided in March to introduce the punitive new charging regime, one of the mitigating factors was supposed to be a “hardship” fund, which has never materialised.  Instead the City is now proposing a “Support Scheme” attached here which contains nothing new, only recycled and repackaged measures.

Both papers indicate that the City of London is continuing with its programme to make the ponds less accessible to many regular swimmers in order to maximise income.

Please continue to feed back to senior figures at the City of London your views on the charging regime and their management of the bathing ponds, using the following addresses:
Anne.Fairweather@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Bob.Warnock@cityoflondon.gov.uk
HH-Swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Please copy your responses to klpamailbox@gmail.com.

Recent press coverage of the City of London’s mismanagement of the bathing ponds can be seen here.

If you believe you have been disadvantaged by the new charging regime at the Hampstead Heath bathing ponds or the post-Covid booking arrangements, due to a “Protected Characteristic” Under the Equality Act 2010,  there may be grounds for a discrimination claim.  This includes, for example, age, disability or religion and belief. 

The KLPA has contacted several firms of solicitors which specialise in such claims and received a particularly helpful response from Leigh Day.  If you think you may have been disadvantaged due to a Protected Characteristic, you can contact this company directly to find out more.  If you think you may be eligible for Legal Aid, please make this clear when you get in touch.  If you are unsure, you can ask about that eligibility and even if you are not eligible for Legal Aid it may still be worth enquiring.  For more information please contact Kate Egerton (KEgerton@leighday.co.uk) or 020 7650 1200.