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7 February 2008 |
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29 January 2008 |
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| Segregated Swimming Rescheduled
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"Clissold Leisure Centre have just called me up to tell me that, following my complaint, they have re-thought their policy of holding gender segregated swimming in the training pool on Sunday mornings.
The original policy had the effect of preventing families with young children from going swimming together on Sunday mornings, and even barred young male children from swimming with their mothers in the gender segregated training pool. The policy impacted particularly harshly upon working families.
Gender segregated swimming will now take place on Tuesday evenings.
The decision was taken on the grounds of 'numbers': there are more families who want to swim on Sunday mornings, than men and women who are prevented for religious or other reasons from swimming in non-segregated pools.
Thank you Clissold Leisure Centre."
(Via Harry's Place: Segregated Swimming Rescheduled: .) ...more...
leisurely speaking | # |
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28 January 2008 |
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| Mayors are panicking
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Who knows what Guy Nicholson thinks?"Giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Mayor Pipe said Hackney will 'lose the opportunity' to attract digital and creative companies if this commitment is not met.
Mayor Pipe said it was 'absolutely vital' the consortia chosen to build the media centres and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) talk to broadcasters and recording industry contacts, 'because they are saying to us they are not going to be interested in taking on that venue afterwards if they have not had some input into the spec'."
(Via 2012 legacy must be secured, urges Mayor of Hackney » Communities » 24dash.com: .) ...more...
Mayor of Hackney | # |
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22 January 2008 |
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| Single Sex Swimming, Religious Minorities and Anti-Discrimination
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"This morning, my wife, five year old son and I thought it might be nice to go swimming in the newly re-opened local swimming pool, Clissold Leisure Centre. We got to the pool at 10.30, to be told that:
- the main pool was too deep to be safe for a five year old;
- the "training" pool was women only between 10.45 and 12.30 every Sunday;
I got angry. I nearly swore. I rarely get angry at people who are doing no more than implementing a policy, because it isn't fair on them. I apologised.
Not to worry, we thought. I'll go in the main pool. My wife and son will go to the training pool. However, that was not permitted. My son, being of the male gender, was not allowed in a women-only swimming session.
I asked why this policy had been put in place, in a way which prevented families swimming together, at a peak time, on the one day of the week during which both mothers and fathers were likely to be doing family things. What reason was there for barring very little male children from the training pool? Why schedule the single-gender swimming session right in the middle of the morning, so that families which arrived at (say) 10.15 would only have half an hour before they were chucked out? Why not schedule it for early in the morning or late in the evening, or on a week day?
Apparently, the policy had been set by Hackney's Equal Opportunities officer.
However, there was a paddling pool open at 11 in which he would be allowed to splash around. No use for learning to swim, we discovered when we got there. The pool was absolutely filled with families with toddlers, many of whom had been chucked out of the training pool in order to make way for the women only swimming session. They stood around for 10 minutes, dripping in the corridor, before the paddling pool was finally open.
While in the paddling pool, I met a woman whose husband was a Hackney councillor. She was also rather angry. I suggested that this was a classic example of an equal opportunities officer trying to cater to an illusory problem, and in doing so, simply feeding the xenophobic prejudices peddled by the Daily Mail.
Apparently not, she said. There were fierce battles in Hackney Council over the issue. The main movers for prime time single sex swimming were the Hassidic jews. She was not racist, she stressed: but they had the advantage of being able to run an effective community-based letter-writing campaign, and of organising politically around the issue."
(Via Harry's Place Single Sex Swimming, Religious Minorities and Anti-Discrimination: .) ...more...
related news | # |
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17 January 2008 |
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| "Troppi scandali con i fondi europei
meglio restituirli che sprecarli"
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Couldn't have put it better ourselves!"I SOLDI fanno bene o fanno male? "I soldi possono far bene, possono far niente e possono far male", dice Pierluigi Bersani. Negli ultimi anni al Sud i soldi (troppi soldi?) hanno creato molti problemi. Più problemi che soluzioni, più emergenze che sviluppo, più delinquenza che legalità. Cinquanta miliardi di fondi straordinari, per metà europei, negli scorsi sei anni sono corsi via come un fiume in piena. Spesi ma già persi. Fuggiti dalle tasche di Bruxelles, bruciati in migliaia di progetti senza capo né coda. "
(Via Kataweb | Finanza: .) ...more...
related news | # |
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15 January 2008 |
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| Builder & Engineer - Hackney gets 2012 Olympic job centre
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With no Olympic sites in Hackney a special Tarmacers College will be set up as far away from the Olympic site that you can get in Hackney. Hackney is hosting the carpark for the Olympics through the strenuous work of Jules Pipe and someone we once knew called Guy Nicholson and tarmacers will be needed. Woodberry Down is handy for the tube from Victoria Coach Station and Stanstead and will offer Polish and Ukranian as a first language."A new construction centre will help residents get jobs created by the regeneration of Woodberry Down and the 2012 Olympic Games. The centre, run by Hackney council, is specifically targeting residents in the Woodberry Down and Stamford Hill areas and will offer an introduction to construction course and a construction course for members of the Orthodox Jewish faith. A third course for women will begin in January. Kim Wright, the council’s corporate director of Community Services, said: "At the peak of building work on the Olympic site in Hackney Wick and Stratford, it is estimated that 9,000 construction jobs will be required."
(Via Builder & Engineer - Hackney gets 2012 Olympic job centre: .) ...more...
hackney supports the olympics | # |
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5 January 2008 |
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| This Is Stoke Newington gets gym membership ... or not
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They were turning people away today because they only had their temporary cards - who issued the cards - they did! They have taken the money, run out of cards and now you can't get in. People say everything is empty and yet you can't get in the pool or on a court. What's that about? "Within minutes of signing up to a monthly direct debit 'Couples membership' with the lovely PC Bitseach, I could feel my blood-pressure rising. You see, they were happy to immediately take my money- and then explain that I could not use the gym (why I joined the godforsaken place) until I had been given an 'induction'. Great, when can I come in? You woulda been so proud: I didn't blow a fuse when they said TWO WEEKS, although I did indicate in a firm, yet tactful way, that it was a bit of a cheek to get me to pay two weeks subs for something I couldn't use. Indeed, if I knew that was going to be the case, I would have postponed commencement of my membership to the day of my induction."
(Via This Is Stoke Newington: .) ...more...
leisurely speaking | # |
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19 December 2007 |
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18 December 2007 |
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| Another Day, Yet ANOTHER Murder?
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This kind of proletarian, liberal, pinko, anarchist really annoys us. Doesn't he know that the police regularly try to lock up Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse? ... and another thing that Jules Pipe is great - everyone knows that ... and CCTV, and asbo's ... like.""Look, I know we live in the East End and the Stoke Newington’s been no stranger to violence throughout the years, but another teen-aged boy , David Nowak, 16, killed for ‘revenge’?
Our illustrious Mayor Jules tends to go to ground when the shit hits the fan and wouldn’t know the meaning of the word ‘leadership’ if it bit him in the backside, but his ‘dial 999’ approach to crime control in the Borough just ain’t doing it for us.
NB
Our own Mr Locker has some photos of the area today."
(Via This Is Stoke Newington Another Day, Yet ANOTHER Murder?: .) ...more...
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13 December 2007 |
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12 December 2007 |
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| Why Hackney needs a bog standard “X” factor
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Take for example the forthcoming council by-election which will be held in Springfield Ward, an area that covers Stamford Hill and the top end of Upper Clapton. It’s the neighbouring ward to the one in which I live, so obviously I’m keen to know what each of the three parties plans to do to improve the area. A search for ‘Springfield’ on the Hackney Conservative Party website throws up ‘Total 0 results found.’ The same search on the Hackney Labour Party site gives you ‘Your search returned 0 matches.’ The Lib Dems do have a piece on their candidate, Brian Stone, who points out local problems and offers no solutions beyond ‘I have a track record of real action’. The Green Party appears to have nothing to say about the election at all.
Frankly, with nine days to go before polling day, this is disgraceful. Prospective councillors should be telling the world - not just the ward - why they care for the place and want to fight its corner. If they get voted in regardless, we end up reading stories like this one (from here):
I even had a chat with one of the councillors from the Springfield Ward outside my estate about the condition of Clapton Common and the fool said he didn’t know where Clapton Common was, so I pointed across the road as he had his back to it at the time.
And, stepping across into my own ward, we might as well consider the real story about the public toilets, which the media in all its Pole-baiting missed. Eight years before those loos were opened, the underground ones on the opposite side of the street were closed down. By 31st July 2004 - five years later - they looked like this:
As you can see, the water at the bottom of the steps is stagnant, filled with litter, and over knee height.
By this afternoon, nearly another three-and-a-half years later, they looked like this:
Now you’ll spot the water is even more stagnant, filled with even more litter, and well over shoulder height. Interestingly, someone appears to have removed the remaining handrails.
Of course, local people have complained about this disgraceful situation. There has even been a piece in our local paper. But the sad truth is that most of us have taken the line that it’s someone else’s problem - including Hackney Council, which has gobsmackingly said that ‘there was some confusion over who owned the old toilets’.
And that’s the rub. If we can’t get our representatives to listen, we need to get angry on other people’s behalf as well as our own. Because if we don’t, we’re not just going to get rancid public toilets, we’re not going to get respite care for the people who need it, or make sure that members of our community don’t have to sleep rough because the council has failed them. And if we can’t do any of those things, how do we really imagine we’re going to improve life on those gang-ridden estates? As recent, tragic events have shown, that’s an ‘X’ factor that’s far too important to be left simply to the officials. "
(Via Scorn and Noise Why Hackney needs a bog standard “X” factor: .) ...more...
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10 December 2007 |
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9 December 2007 |
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| More tax to pay for councillors' perks
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The political priest class that lives off those that they view as their subjects in these islands further 'feathers its nest'. Pharoah has no power to stop this as it is, "stand together or fall together". The Councillors Commission, a Labour dominated body has produced a 100 page report recommending a range of new benefits for councillors. It includes proposals to free Councillors from the requirement to turn up at meetings!! The Government wants to make council service more appealing and accessible to a diverse range of people, including those trying to paddle their own canoe in Panama, one would imagine.
The financial implications are bad enough, but if Cllrs. can have involvement in meetings (including voting) without needing to turn up for those meetings then democracy in this country will be undermined in a way previously unenvisaged. For example, when the Environment and Community Committee met on 4th December to push through the closure of Harlow Pool the meeting room was packed with concerned members of the public opposed to the vote. If this kind of decision can be taken without Cllrs even being there, then public accountability, transparency etc will be virtually wiped out."
(Via poolingresources : Message: More tax to pay for councillors' perks - Telegraph: .) ...more...
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7 December 2007 |
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| “It’s no secret... it was a fairly chaotic managerial arrangement.”
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It's sad, so sad
It's a sad, sad situation
And it's getting more and more absurd
It's sad, so sad
Why can't we talk it over
Oh it seems to me
That sorry seems to be the hardest word "Fairly chaotic"!!! £54,000,000 and 12 years are two "fairly" big numbers for a hole in the ground that holds water where two perfectly good ones already stood. We would have preferred a reference to the [enter own words here dear reader] of the various decisions and controls maintained throughout by LBH, Sport England the consultants and contractors and even the office of the district auditor. The problem then, as now, is that Hackney is a council staffed by too many people who are unable to plan further than next Wednesday's Guardian jobs pages. A culture exists here where consultation recorded by officers is wilfully used against the public and their aspirations. Everything that CLC lacks today was requested by the public at the earliest discussions and was forcefully rejected by officers and the architect, even the then Prime Minister John Major felt unable to step in and influence the council and Sport England on the community's behalf and wrote to say so. Hackney Council is regularly accused of possessing an institutionalised contempt for the public of Hackney that means that the views of any tinpot consultant or arrogant architect counts for more than the views of the people that live here. Did we do him up as Baldrick? we can't even remember that but it sounds quite good. The big thing about this piece is that at last there is a sort of an apology, he even apologises on behalf of the Council who have steadfastly refused to admit it was anything to do with them, "on behalf of the client and the design team I’m so very sorry that it came about." No hard feelings Steve.  "From Building:
Hodder soon encountered the sort of problems that go with local government work. ‘In the early days, there was a constant change of personnel at the council,’ he recalls. ‘Tony Ellison, the chief executive, left, the [in-house] project manager changed. There was a tremendous lack of continuity.’(hmmm not so sure about that Steve ... Ed)
Kim Wright, director of community and leisure at Hackney, admits: ‘It’s no secret. There was no overall political control and it was a fairly chaotic managerial arrangement.’
But the real difficulties started in 1997 when Sport England, one of the scheme’s co-funders, designated Hackney a priority initiative area, which meant, according to Hodder, that there was money available to take the budget to £10m. However, what should have been a boon for the project quickly became a poisoned chalice.
‘That prompted Hackney, not unreasonably, to rethink the brief,’ says Hodder. ‘I felt there were things that we could improve … the size of the gym facility could be bigger, there was no spectators’ facility. There was quite a lot of public consultation that led to changes – for example, to the changing rooms because of the Orthodox Jewish community.’
There was debate, too, over the scheme’s two 25m swimming pools. Some felt that there should be a single 50m Olympic pool – (no we didn't, we wanted a 52 metre pool with a boom and a curtain wall to divide into two 25-metre pools and a training pool/lagoon, we showed how it fitted on the site with space to spare and yet we got a 50-metre atrium-foyer and and an awning.) an idea that was dropped – but one of the pools was stretched from six to eight lanes.
These were substantial changes, but Hackney was keen to start work on site as soon as possible, partly because it had been advised that this would save on VAT. However, tenders for the project came in at £13m, £3m higher than anticipated. The design team and the council came up with a compromise budget of £11.5m, but in the meantime Gleeson, the contractor, was being pushed to get started.
more »
(Via Hackney, Council of Chaos “It’s no secret... it was a fairly chaotic managerial arrangement.”: .) ...more...
hod watch | # |
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4 December 2007 |
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| Olympic venues axed as costs rise
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Now where was that basketball court going to be?"SPIRALLING costs have forced London Olympic officials to scrap plans for a £100m fencing arena, while a basketball venue is also in jeopardy.
The events will be held in existing buildings rather than in the structures shown in artists’ impressions unveiled to the public by the Games organisers.
The paring back of the Olympic building plans is at the centre of a review ordered by the London Organising Committee (Locog) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)."
(Via Olympic venues axed as costs rise - Times Online: .) ...more...
London 2012 | # |
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30 November 2007 |
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| Derek Mapp resigns as Sport England chair
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"The Department of Health is given the participation agenda and told to get the lard-balls running around as the obesity and diabetes crisis deepens. Sport England is told to forget about happy-smiling photo ops and propping up building budgets for the games and be a financial clearing-house for the governing bodies of sports and their elite programmes. The governing bodies will be told to do what they say they do and get some medals via elite programmes, or else. The old boys from rugby will have something to say about this.Sport England chairman Derek Mapp has quit after the government announced changes to the organisation's role.
Mapp claimed he was forced to quit. 'I am deeply unhappy. I was willing to continue to deliver the new agenda but that was not deemed acceptable.'
Responsibility for getting the nation active has removed from Sport England and handed to the Department of Health.
Sport England will be told to focus on increasing sports participation, mainly but not exclusively through clubs.
Mapp had advised James Purnell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to be cautious about pushing through the changes as he was concerned some organisations would be left without any funding,
(Via BBC SPORT | Sport England chairman quits job: .)
'The chair of Sport England, Derek Mapp, has resigned today (29 November). The following statement has been issued by chief executive Jennie Price:'
(Via Leisure Opportunities News Derek Mapp resigns as Sport England chair: .) Football fans from all over Europe chanting 'Croatia, Croatia' at England fans this week will have sent a chill through the blazered administrators from every sport but it's business as usual for some: 2006, 2007 - reminds us of deja vu? "
(Via london pools campaign Derek Mapp resigns as Sport England chair: .) ...more...
sport england | # |
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29 November 2007 |
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25 November 2007 |
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| Disabled veterans jeered at swimming pool
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You couldn't get a veteran with disabilities into a Hackney leisure centre or swimming pool anyway and when it was built Clissold was actually unusable by people with disabilities. It is the council officers who jeer all of the public with their incompetence. "Similar stories came from the USA in the 1970s and 80s as Vietnam veterans used swimming pools although we feel sure that the question of payment or subsidy of the cost of swimming was never cited as a cause. 'The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.
The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.
One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.
The atmosphere was said to be so tense that the soldiers' instructors removed them.'
(Via Disabled veterans jeered at swimming pool - Telegraph: .) "
(Via london pools campaign Disabled veterans jeered at swimming pool: .) ...more...
London Pools Campaign | # |
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A website about Clissold Leisure Centre brought to you from June 2002 and still going strong in February 2008.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License,
take it, we don't want money we want answers. We don't make money from this site, in fact it costs us money. If you are into copyright and think we've infringed yours tell us via email.
   
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audit commission report 2002, "The new Clissold Centre has opened with significant design weaknesses."
"It would, of course, be irresponsible of the Council to promise that repairs will be done if it turns out that this would be more expensive than a rebuild. If that is the case then the Council will certainly look at all the options, in consultation with residents." Hackney Council Statement
WHAT CAN I DO?
If you live in Stoke Newington your MP is Diane Abbott but the link below finds your MP wherever you live. Fax your MP and ask them to ask a question of LBH or Sport England.
Miss Abbott did a little bit once upon a time on this issue including asking a question in Parliament and said many times "I believe, if the centre remains closed indefinitely, there should be a public inquiry into where all that money went" as she said on 04.02.04. Well Diane the centre is now closed indefinitely and we are pleased to see you are watching so closely. If you, like us, are disappointed that it remains closed fax her today and remind her about your desire to swim.
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