NEWS

Signs such as the one pictured above are a common sight in countries like Australia where wildfire is a well understood danger.  In the last few weeks, unusually dry weather has led to wildfire outbreaks around London and similar signs might become a familiar feature in the UK too.  Disposable barbeques have been a particular issue recently.

The KLPA has been asked to remind members of the current fire risk on the Heath e.g. through discarded cigarettes or use of disposable barbeques.  Whilst smoking is not currently banned under Heath byelaws at the bathing ponds, it is strongly discouraged. Barbeques are not permitted at all.  There have been two recent incidents involving fire damage to the meadows at the Ladies’ Pond, believed to have been caused by a barbeque or open fire.  Fortunately these fires did not spread but could easily have done so, and they caused localised damage anyway. 

If you do see any careless disposal of cigarettes or use of barbeques at the Ladies’ Pond, please draw this to the attention of the staff on duty. Ideally, smoking should not be happening at all in such flammable conditions.

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On a more positive note, there is still time to contribute towards the crowdfunding appeal by the East London Waterworks Park Project.  This is a community led campaign to clean up a former Thames Water depot near Lea Bridge Road, restoring the natural environment and creating two bathing ponds.  The intention is that swimming here should be free of charge, so as to maintain inclusivity for the local community.  If you are able to, please consider donating by clicking the logo below:
 

Does this sound too good to be true?  Please read on…

In 2020 and 2021 the KLPA provided updates to members about a project being developed in East London, on the boundary of Waltham Forest and Hackney, near to Lea Bridge Road. This is the East London Waterworks Park which would redevelop a now derelict industrial site for the benefit of the local community.

This project has since been developed further, following an earlier crowd funding campaign in 2021 which allowed the development of a business plan.  The community group leading this project has also worked on an inclusivity plan and an engineering report in the meantime.  They have approached the landowner, and now need to raise £1m to show them that the East London Waterwork Park project is a serious proposition. 

The former Thames Water depot would be cleaned up and developed as a public open space, restoring the natural environment and making available a naturally cleaned year-round open water swimming place.  The plan is to keep access to swimming free of charge so that the local community can benefit from access to what we know to be such a beneficial activity.

A new crowd funding page has been set up and needs to reach £500,000 by 23 August 2022 to continue.  Already nearly £200,000 has been raised.  If you are able to, please consider donating to a project which will help to bring back inclusivity to open water swimming in London:

Further details of the project can be seen here:

The KLPA will hold its monthly merchandise stall, at the Ladies’ Pond, on Sunday 17 July 2022 from 9 am to 11 am.  We have books, mugs and knitted hats for sale and all still at just £10 each.  Knitted hats and mugs can be bought in sets of 4 for £35, including mix and match options. We can take cash, cheque or card payment.

The bright coloured hats help with visibility for the lifeguards if you are swimming in poor light (possibly not an issue in the middle of summer!). The books and mugs continue to make popular presents for friends and family.

Help to support the work of the KLPA and join us at the merchandise stall on 17 July 2022. We aim to keep our merchandise prices affordable so that they are accessible to as many swimmers as possible, and they all have a practical use.

After four months, we now have a decision on the Judicial Review which took place at the High Court on 23-24 February 2022. We can confirm the following brief information today and will write to members with more details as soon as there has been an opportunity to read the judgement in depth.

The claim for disability discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments has not been upheld by the High Court. This is of course disappointing news but we are pleased to have been able to support Christina Efthimiou in this case, which was very important to bring. We will also continue to campaign through other channels for the return of inclusivity at the bathing ponds, which had provided a safe and healing space for so many people in the past regardless of their income.

The KLPA would like to thank Christina Efthimiou for having the courage to pursue this important issue.  We would also like to thank the legal team at Leigh Day led by Kate Egerton, as well as our representative in Court Zoe Leventhal QC and her team at Matrix Chambers, for all of their hard work and dedication.

We will provide members with more detail when there has been an opportunity to analyse the contents of the judgement. 

Thank you to all KLPA members and to everyone else who has taken an interest too, your support is very much appreciated.

We have something to celebrate on Sunday 12 June 2022! 

In 2020, as a part of the Highgate Festival, the Ladies’ Pond swimmers and lifeguards were honoured with the award of a Pink Plaque (details here) and now we are able to get it installed. 

Our plaque is a part of a series which the festival organisers hope will:

“Discover the lives of some of Highgate’s most remarkable women – movers and shakers from our area’s past and present. By marking their existence with a plaque, we hope to draw attention to the famous, notorious and hidden women of our community.”

You can see more details of the project here describing the many outstanding women with Highgate connections who have been honoured, including Dido Belle, Florence Nightingale, Barbara Castle and Claudia Jones.

It was not possible to install this plaque during the Highgate Festival in 2020 and 2021 due to restrictions on gatherings.  This year the plaque will finally get pride of place at the Ladies’ Pond, with one plaque at the entrance and one to be attached to the buildings.

Join us on Sunday 12 June 2022 at 12.00 midday for the presentation of our Pink Plaque by festival organiser Alicia Pivaro, who is also a regular swimmer at the Ladies’ Pond. Local press photographers will be present for this event.

You may also be interested to know that the KLPA was involved in an exhibition of the history of the Ladies’ Pond at the Highgate Festival in 2019 (details here).

Join us in celebrating the women who have made the Ladies’ Pond such a special place for nearly 100 years, and give some thought to how we might celebrate our centenary in 2025/2026.

And …… KLPA merchandise stall is back

On Sunday 12 June 9-11am the KLPA will hold its monthly merchandise stall at the Ladies Pond. We will have hi-viz knitted hats, mugs and books for sale at £10 each.  Mugs and hi-viz knitted hats can be bought in bulk, four for £35 (including mix and match options).  We can take payment by cash, cheque or card.  The knitted hats help with visibility at the pond in poor light conditions so they are helpful to the lifeguards.  The hats, mugs and books all make great presents too.

The KLPA will be holding its monthly merchandise sale on Saturday 28 May 2022 from 9 to 11 am, at the Ladies’ Pond.  We will have hi-viz knitted hats, mugs and books for sale at £10 each.  Mugs and hi-viz knitted hats can be bought in bulk, four for £35 (including mix and match options).  We also have bright coloured silicon swim hats for sale at £5.  We can take payment by cash, cheque or card.  The knitted hats and silicon swim hats help with visibility at the pond in poor light conditions so they are helpful to the lifeguards.  The hats, mugs and books all make great presents too.

Judicial Review
Many of you have been asking about the progress of the recent Judicial Review, supported by the KLPA, to challenge the impact of the charging regime at the bathing ponds.  We are still waiting for a result from the High Court, and will let members know as soon as there is any news.

As summer approaches and the evenings draw out it will soon be time for another KLPA newsletter to appear, as if it were a part of the pond ecology.

The popularity of the KLPA Newsletter is down to the creative contributions we receive from members like you.  If you would like to contribute to the summer newsletter, please send your original work for inclusion by 5pm on Sunday 12 June 2022.

Wondering what to send?  How about an account of a new swimming place which you have discovered in the UK or beyond, or of another swimming group which you have met when out on such adventures.  Do you have an original poem or artwork to contribute?  Have you been involved in campaigns to support access to open water swimming places, or efforts to combat the pollution of these places?  If so, we would love to include these accounts in the newsletter, with supporting images.

Please email your contributions to klpamailbox@gmail.com by 5 pm on Sunday 12 June 2022.

Recently, the KLPA asked members for feedback on proposed adaptations to the changing room building at the Ladies’ Pond.  Members identified a number of issues with the City’s initial proposals including:

1. Creating a through route from the pathway, via the toilets to the changing rooms would create a congested space which may present challenges to some disabled swimmers e.g. those with a visual impairment or reduced mobility.
2. Having a combined accessible toilet and shower room, would reduce the availability of the accessible toilet.
3. Any adaptations to the buildings need to be preceded by rectifying the damp and drainage issues in the buildings, otherwise the adaptations are likely to fail

KLPA Committee members met with City managers, the architect, the City’s accessibility consultant and project managers on 5 May 2022 to discuss the proposals.  In the meantime we had received confirmation that the buildings constructed in 2016 did not comply with building regulations in respect of disability access in a number of ways when they went up (e.g. see photo above from accessibility report produced in 2018). 

Following the meeting on 5 May 2022 a series of alternative options has been proposed by the City and we would like your updated feedback.  This survey is open to all members, and weare particularly interested in feedback from members who have a disability and who want to comment on the 3 proposed layouts:

• Option 1 – Split the WC block in half, side to side. Two toilets accessed from the pathway and two accessed from changing room.  One of two inside WCs has grab rails. Combined accessible WC/shower room created, which is enlarged by removing the panelling in the existing accessible WC (plan here).
• Option 2 – Split the WC block in half, side to side.  Two toilets accessed from the pathway and two accessed from changing room.  One of two inside WCs has grab rails.  Combined accessible WC/shower room created, which is enlarged by removing the panelling in the existing accessible WC.  Create an enhanced additional changing cubicle inside main changing room (plan here).
• Option 3 – Leave WC block much as it is now but one WC cubicle has grab rails. Combined accessible WC/shower room created, which is enlarged by removing the panelling in the existing accessible WC (plan here).

Now, please answer the brief survey below (closes at 6pm on Friday 20 May 2022): 

The City has decided not to alter the external shower area at this stage but we have emphasised the need to rectify the drainage issues here, as well as damp elsewhere in the buildings. Otherwise the adaptations are likely to fail.

There are some relatively quick fixes such as more pegs in the changing cubicles which have been agreed to.

If you have any further comments which you would like to share with the City, please email via the addresses below and copy to klpamailbox@gmail.com.

HH-Swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Stefania.Horne@cityoflondon.gov.uk (Heath Superintendent) 

Thank you for your continued input on this subject.

We are about to update the membership list and will be holding this information on our new online system “MemberMojo“. 

MemberMojo is a UK based company which is GDPR compliant.  It will be used by the KLPA to maintain membership records in one secure place, and this company will not send you marketing emails or sell on your data.

Many members have joined or renewed using this system already.  Existing members who are life members, or who pay by bank transfer/standing order will have their details transferred here too so that all data is held securely in one place. By using MemberMojo we aim to avoid holding different parts of our membership data in different places.

Next March, annual members will start to receive renewal reminders via MemberMojo with a link to use to pay for their 2023 membership.  This will also encourage all members to align their renewal date with our membership cycle of 1 April to 31 March.  Whilst you can continue to renew your membership using bank transfer or cash payment, we hope that most members will opt to renew via MemberMojo next year.  If you do so but have previously paid by standing order, please remember to cancel your standing order in time so that you do not pay twice!  You do not need to have access to internet banking to renew via MemberMojo as this is done through card payment via the secure payment system “Stripe”.

If you are a life member you should not receive any reminders from MemberMojo but we will use this system to maintain our records of your membership.

Membership Privacy Notice

IMPORTANT: By providing this information you agree to the KLPA storing your details and contacting you when we have information to communicate.  We will NOT share your data with any other organization or individual other than to carry out our core functions, for which we currently use the following external services: MemberMojo to administer your membership details, and Mailchimp to send communications to you by email.

The City of London Corporation is proposing to make alterations to the existing changing rooms at the Ladies’ Pond.  The buildings went up in 2016 but it soon became evident that there were problems with their accessibility and construction.  The proposed works are intended to improve accessibility and to resolve some of the persistent problems with damp and drainage.   There have been several periods of closure to address serious maintenance issues since 2016.

We are seeking your views on this project which, if it gets planning permission, might be undertaken between November 2022 and May 2023. (This timeframe includes work being undertaken at the Men’s and Mixed Ponds.)  We have been assured that it should not be necessary to close the Ladies’ Pond to do this work, but there will be operatives on site during opening hours to carry out the works. 
 
The City is proposing to enlarge the accessible toilet cubicle to include a shower, and this will reduce the size of the main toilet block.  They are proposing to remove the back wall of the main toilet block and open up a route directly into the changing rooms, which will mean the loss of one changing cubicle but easier access to the toilets. Some of the hand basin facilities lost due to the removal of the internal wall would need to be mounted on the external wall near the door into the main toilet block.  In addition, alterations to the external shower area are being considered which may address some of the damp and drainage problems here.

The KLPA would also like to know your views on the use of changing gazebos in various areas at the Ladies’ Pond.

Please take a look at this diagram and then answer the questions in the brief survey here:

https://klpa.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0e871ffde380e120f7dffe46c&id=40125e39a7&e=878d13563e

The KLPA survey will be open until 6pm on Tuesday 26 April 2022.  We intend to share a report of the survey results with the City i.e. overall percentages and anonymised additional comments (where these help to highlight any particular concerns).

The City is also conducting a survey on these alterations which asks one open-ended question about the proposals at question 4.  Please complete the City’s survey too if you have the opportunity.

If you would like to provide more detailed feedback to the City of London Corporation about these proposals, or anything which you think is missing, please email via the addresses below and copy to klpamailbox@gmail.com.

HH-Swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Stefania.Horne@cityoflondon.gov.uk (Heath Superintendent) 

Thank you for your input.