New swimming pool should be cause for celebration in Wanstead

The news that there will be a swimming pool in Wanstead has been greeted with much enthusiasm among the local population.

People living in this area have for too long had to travel miles to reach their nearest pool. The lack of a pool has further underlined, the sometimes heard view in these parts, that Wanstead is the forgotten part of Redbridge.

Swimming is an excellent and essential exercise. It exercises many different muscle groups, without the same wear and tear issues as say running. It also vital to be able to swim because, put simply, you could drown. It is surprising how many people around cannot swim.

There have been those who have criticised the new swimming pool venture on the basis of cost. Most notably Conservative candidate for Wanstead Village, Scott Wilding has said in the past that the pool is likely to be “a white elephant.”

Critics often mix up the sums regarding how the pool is going to be funded. It will not be coming out of revenue funding, which accounts for the day to day services that the council has to provide. So, there will not say less be less bin collections or council funded social care because of the swimming pool.

Funding for the pool is coming from capital spending. So there will be £750,000 from Sport England, with the remainder of the funding coming from internal capital and borrowing at a preferential rate. The money will pay back in time from the admission fees generated by the pool and adjacent gymnasium.

Many will have been surprised to hear the likes of Mr Wilding talk about costs, given that it is the actions of his Conservative government with its failed austerity policies that are forcing a series of relentless cuts on local authorities across the land.

Redbridge has had to absorb £134 million of cuts since 2010, with more in the pipeline. It’s cuts for the mass of people, whilst a few of the very rich continue to get ever richer with tax breaks and other benefits. These are the type of policies that have created an incredibly unequal society, best exemplified by the sight of over 1 million people going to foodbanks, while over 140 billionaires enjoy a life of plenty.

The Labour Council has struggled to keep public services for all, whilst under pressure to constantly cut. The retaining, and indeed updating in Wanstead, of the library is one major achievement. Street collections have also been maintained.

The council has struggled to maintain services against a real from the Tory government that seems determined to drain the life blood out of local communities across the land.

Given, the aforesaid, it is all the more credible that a new swimming pool to improve the lives of the many people living here should be underway – a cause to celebration. 

 

See - Wanstead & Woodford Guardian and Wanstead & Woodford Recorder -   14/12/2017