Category: Uncategorized

We regret to inform you that yesterday the City of London’s Hampstead Heath Management Committee decided to reject the recommendations of the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee (made on Monday, 9 March) and instead to implement the following changes from 2 May 2020:

Adopt ‘approved’ charges – managed by Heath Rangers (Option 3)
Collect the approved charges from 2 May 2020 to meet the agreed level of subsidy. It is proposed that charges will be applicable at the point of entry for the bathing ponds. Heath Rangers will oversee and ensure payment. [Non-payers to be excluded].

The ‘approved charges’ are as follows:
Adult day ticket: £4.00 (100% increase)
Concession day ticket: £2.40 (140% increase)
Season ticket (existing and new): frozen at current rates until April 2021
Free morning swims until 9.30am for over 60s and under 16s.

This decision is contrary to the recommendations of the KLPA and other swimming associations and user groups on Hampstead Heath. Our AGM on Friday 13 March will provide an early opportunity to discuss our response to this announcement and the next steps to be taken.

Please email klpamailbox@gmail.com if you wish to send us a response for consideration in the discussion.

The Hampstead Heath Management Committee will meet at 16.00 on Wednesday 11 March in the West Wing of the City of London Guildhall to consider the recommendations of the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee on future management of the swimming ponds.

There will be a peaceful gathering of swimmers outside the West Wing ahead of the meeting to show support for the City’s Option 2 proposal and a freeze on current charges, as recommended by the Consultative Committee on Monday night (see report in the CNJ here).

Assemble from 15.15. The West Wing is accessed from Gresham Street and Aldermanbury (EC2). Swimwear optional, t-shirts and placards provided! Please behave respectfully towards members of the public, including the committee and City of London staff.

There will be a limited number of places available in the public gallery for the meeting at which ‘business attire’ will be expected (rather than t-shirts or swimwear). We are observers rather than participants at this meeting and so will not be able to take any part in the proceedings.

More media coverage of the City’s proposals and the swimmers’ responses (all published before Monday’s meeting of the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee):

Hampstead & Highgate Express, 4 March 2020

Camden New Journal, 6 March 2020

Financial Times, 7 March 2020

The Times, 9 March 2020

The Consultative Committee decided almost unanimously to reject the City’s recommended Option 3 (payment enforced by Rangers at all times) in favour of Option 2 (payment encouraged by Rangers staffing the ponds on busy days). There was also a strong sense from the committee that charges should be frozen until 2021 while Option 2 is trialled and the City introduces clear signage and a variety of options for making payment easily. The aim would be to monitor the effectiveness of Option 2 in generating increased revenue to meet rising costs.

This is not a final decision. The recommendations now go forward to the Hampstead Heath Management Committee meeting at the Guildhall on Wednesday 11 March for their decision. If you can, please join us for a further demonstration of swimmers’ feelings outside the Guildhall at 3.00pm on Wednesday.

You can download a copy of our submission to the Consultative Committee here (this will also go to the Management Committee).

As most of you know, the City of London will make its decision next week on charges and compulsory payment at the swimming ponds. Of the options proposed by the City (summarised on the KLPA website), they recommend Option 3, with charges for day tickets increasing from £2 to £4 (concessions to increase from £1 to £2.40). We, the user groups oppose this and are asking for Option 2 to be trialled for this summer season with NO increase in charges.

The KLPA, HMPA, MPA and USA have been invited to address the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee on Monday 9 March, before they make their decision on which option to recommend to the Hampstead Heath Management Committee which meets on Wednesday 11 March. Ahead of the meeting we have made written submissions to be included in the document pack for committee members which summarise the points we wish to make. The main submission can be downloaded here and the appendix (which deals with the difficulties of making payment) here.

If you can, please join fellow swimmers in peaceful demonstrations on Monday and Wednesday to show your support for Option 2 and a freeze on charges. Demonstration details here.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Write to the Corporation of London with your views.
Tweet or follow the campaign
#freedomtoswim   #pondsnotprofit   

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Come and support our representatives at the critical meetings with peaceful protest.

MONDAY, 9 MARCH
Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee
GATHER 18.30, outside Parliament Hill Staff Yard.
We will have placards and t-shirts available with the campaign messages.
Some participants will be able to watch proceedings from the public gallery.

WEDNESDAY, 11 MARCH
Hampstead Heath Management Committee
Gather 15.30, outside the Guildhall, Basinghall Street EC2V 7HH
We will have placards and t-shirts available with the campaign messages.
Some participants will be able to watch proceedings form the public gallery.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Write to the Corporation of London with your views.
Tweet or follow the campaign
#freedomtoswim   #pondsnotprofit   

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Come and support our representatives at the critical meetings with peaceful protest.

MONDAY, 9 MARCH
Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee
GATHER 18.30, outside Parliament Hill Staff Yard.
We will have placards and t-shirts available with the campaign messages.
Some participants will be able to watch proceedings from the public gallery.

WEDNESDAY, 11 MARCH
Hampstead Heath Management Committee
Gather 15.30, outside the Guildhall, Basinghall Street EC2V 7HH
We will have placards and t-shirts available with the campaign messages.
Some participants will be able to watch proceedings form the public gallery.

All members of the KLPA, HMPA, MPA, Highgate Lifebuoys and USA were invited to an emergency meeting on 26 February 2020 to discuss the City of London’s proposals for managing the swimming ponds from 2 May 2020. A summary of the proposals, which will be considered by Hampstead Heath Consultative and Management committees on 9 and 11 March respectively, can be viewed here.

The meeting was attended by 103 members in addition to speakers from the HMPA, KLPA and MPA and the chair of the Winter Swimming Club and Heath and Hampstead Society who acted as moderator.

Following a lively exchange of views, the following motions were put to the vote and agreed by a majority of those attending: –

• We oppose enforced charging on principle BUT we are willing to commit to encouraging a culture in which payment of current charges or contributions is normal and easy to do.
• We are willing to work with the City to develop systems and communications that enable those who wish to pay to make voluntary payment or contributions, including buying season tickets.
• We believe that, even with concessions proposed by the City, compulsory charging will have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged and vulnerable people and will exclude minorities.
• We support the lifeguards and Heath staff and believe they will suffer undue workplace stress under the City’s preferred options. The only way to move forward and preserve the unique ethos and environment of the Ponds is for the City to work with the swimmer groups.

The KLPA prefers Option 1 but is willing to support Option 2.

Those who feel strongly about this may wish to send comments on the proposals to the City of London at: hampstead.heath@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Below are the results of our recent survey of views on charges and charging policy. Top line findings are:

• An overwhelming majority (75%) think the current charges are fair, but nearly 70% say that increased charges would affect their ability to swim.

• At present 24% of members buy season tickets and more than half of the rest already pay to swim. We infer from this that there is considerable potential to increase the uptake of season tickets if their value is communicated effectively and purchase made easier.

• More than 80% of our members would not want to see enforcement of charges.

The figures show consolidated responses from the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond, the Highgate Men’s Pond Association and the Mixed Pond Association. In total 1,192 members were polled and 823 (69%) responded. Opinion was remarkably consistent across the groups.