Hackney

Hackney

The Clissold Debacle Visit the Clissold Leisure Centre Unofficial community website for the whole, sorry tale or at least as much as the public is able to learn. Other Clissold links at bottom of this page.

LC Apology - The following appeared on http://clissold.leisureconnection.co.uk/ , in September 2005? If not the "structure" of the building what did cause all those problems?

Clissold Leisure Centre
"A statement published by Leisure Connection Limited on its website has attributed the closure of Clissold Leisure Centre to problems with the "structure of the building". Leisure Connection Limited accepts that it was incorrect to use the word "structure" when citing reasons for the closure of the building. Leisure Connection accepts that structural matters were not responsible for the closure of Clissold Leisure Centre and did not intend to infer that to be the case. Leisure Connection apologises for any misunderstanding which may have arisen from its statement."
James Picton
Manager

Swimmer in the depths of despair over dirty pool from Hackney Gazette 17.8.05 http://snipurl.com/h8of

ONE of the only pools open to the public in Hackney has been slammed for dirty conditions in both its changing rooms and swimming facilities.

King's Hall Leisure Centre in Lower Clapton Road has been attacked by one swimmer for being lax on cleaning after she found a tampon in the swimming pool and grime in the changing rooms.

Claudia Rymer, 46, of Lavender Grove, Dalston, had taken the leisure centre up on an offer to join for four weeks for £20. She asked for her money back after seeing the conditions in the swimming pool.

"I was disgusted to find the tampon and had to remove it from the pool myself," she said. "I pointed it out to the lifeguard, but he just kicked it into the corner of the room.

"A couple of people left the pool after seeing it because they were so appalled, but the lifeguard just left it there and when I reported it to the duty manager, he told me he couldn't leave the desk.

"The changing rooms were bad as well, the doors were dirty and it smelt like a dogs' toilet. I used to go to the pool a few years ago and left because it was dirty. This incident is unhygienic, to say the least, and I won't be going back."

More Unhelpful Information on LC's Website

LC is keeping quiet about the agreement with Hackney Council (see below) to pull out of all of its contracts in the borough. The contract, at least for Clissold Leisure Centre, was meant to be for 15 years. LC is pulling out with 12 years to go and with the Clissold centre still closed after 20 months of wrangling and threats of legal action between the key players, architect, builder, LC and the Council.

Hackney posted its press release on 21 July but as of 30 July the LC website has no press releases after June. And visiting the LC webpage for Clissold today finds no news posted. There is an invitation, inserted after earlier LCW criticism about unhelpful information, - "The Clissold Leisure Centre Information Updates are available online by clicking here". Clicking on this link to the council's information page on Clissold one finds that the latest update available is from May.

LC Quits Hackney - Clissold and three other facilities.

Press Release issued 21.7.05

Hackney and Leisure Connection announce termination of contract

'The London Borough of Hackney and Leisure Connection Ltd have today a announced their mutual agreement to end their contract for Leisure Connection to manage four facilities in Hackney.

members of the leisure centres and leisure cardholders to inform them of the changes, as well as holding briefing meetings to explain the handover to leisure centre staff.0

The Council is committed to ensuring that this mutual decision does not interrupt services and that there is a smooth handover to the Council to continue local services.0

Hackney Council is currently exploring options for the future management of its leisure portfolio and is committed to having robust management arrangements in place by the agreed date of handover from Leisure Connection, which is 15th September 2005.'

The Council is committed to involving residents and service users in the process of deciding the long term future of Hackney's leisure management."

Kim Wright Director, Community & Leisure

I believe this follows on from the Clissold dispute. More information sought on what led up to LC quitting. PB

Two reports from Consultation Meetings Held in Hackney in January 2005, posted on the

John Runtz: http://snipurl.com/cqiv

Well for the first time in this whole sorry comedy of errors Hackney fielded a very strong and well-informed team to give people answers at what was a very well-organised event. It was like a reunion of the users of the centre. The councillors started the day nervous but the officers ran a very tight ship that helped them gain confidence and relax.

Losers on the day were definitely Leisure Connection with dislike of them still strong after all this time. In a week in which, we were told, water at Kings Hall was unsuitable for swimming and that the vending machines were infested with ants (could happen anywhere) people still remembered Clissold as dirty, smelly and poorly-maintained...

Frank Bostock:

...One of the issues that came up in the second workshop I attended was the cafeteria food in the Brittas, sorry, that should read Britannia Leisure Centre. One woman, a mother, expressed her concern over the catering there (greasy, high fat junk food) and the absence of healthy alternatives for children. She noted that Leisure Connections was not setting a good example.

Rather than listen quietly, the LC man tried arguing and defending the company's actions. Someone followed on with a criticism that LC had installed one-armed bandits and other gambling paraphernalia in the buildings. He adamantly denied this, claiming LC had inherited the gaming machines. With one voice the people in the workshop shouted him down, pointing out that if there was a gaming machine in Clissold, how could LC have "inherited" it? Turning a shade of red, he argued that this machine was placed there on a temporary and experimental basis only.

Someone asked him to come clean and admit that gambling and gaming machine supply was, in fact, a major trading activity and source of income for LC's parent company and LC had a vested interest to place these machines in Hackney premises. At this point he turned purple and said these issues were irrelevant to the business in hand...

(According to http://www.gamestec.co.uk/contact_team.htm on 12.2.05 Colin Daniels is the chief executive of Danoptra, and "executive chairman of both Gamestec and its sister company Leisure Connection". Other web pages show a picture of youths next to a fruit machine and say how the company has 70,000 machines at locations including "leisure venues". PB)

Britannia Leisure Centre from Private Eye No 1122, 24 December 2004, page 11.

"...Meanwhile Mr Ibrahim Khan of Hackney, East London, is nursing his wounds after the top bench on which he was sitting in the sauna at the borough's Britannia Leisure centre collapsed beneath him, causing bad bruising to his hand and arm and a painful blood clot in a finger. It was the third such collapse at the Leisure Connection-operated centre in as many months."

Following his accident Mr Khan started a petition about poor services at Britannia. He has also submitted a detailed report with photos to LC and Hackney Council about the accident and other complaints. Mr Khan’s report includes concerns about:

	Difficulty finding the alarm button for the sauna
	Was the earlier bench breaking in sauna written up in accident book?
	"Temporary" door handle on sauna is a hazard but has been there 5 months
	Steam room and sauna often out of order
	Health suite showers not available for over a week
	No drinking water in the health suite
	Poor cleaning in health suite, infrequent cleaning of toilets
	Bad smells from the shower drains
	Poor cleaning of spa bath, including green algae and "smelt like a dirty fish tank"
	Inconsistent temperatures and lack of checking of chemical levels in spa bath
	Promises for improvements not kept.

Towards the end Mr Khan writes, "The issues outlined in this report have all been addressed to members of staff and management, but our complaints are just swept under the carpet by management, but yet we continue to pay our membership. Now we can no longer tolerate the situation of an unacceptable service delivery by Leisure Connection's management. In our opinion there seems to be more managers and no staff."

I am happy to forward requests to Mr Khan for copies of his report by email - contact me via vilefirm@btinternet.com . As ever, space is reserved here for a brief comment from LC (or Hackney Council) along with a link to their own web page. PB

Unhelpful LC Web Pages

As of 11.12.04 part of Leisure Connection's web is still suggesting that Clissold is open for business. Given that the centre closed over a year ago could this qualify for a Guinness Record. Any suggestions for the category? Perhaps as LC may still be getting payments from Hackney (see letter below), LC still see Clissold as a going concern? From http://www.leisureconnection.co.uk/authority28.html

"Clissold Leisure Centre, situated in the heart of the arty, cosmopolitan and up beat Stoke Newington, is ideally located for locals and commuters alike. Newly opened in February 2002, the centre boasts a wide range and variety of facilities to cater for its customers. You can find us just off Stoke Newington Church Street near to busy Green Lanes and Stoke Newington High Street, and we can offer membership packages to suit your needs and income."

The above page links to more detailed information about Clissold. From June 2004 until today LCW carried this text on its Hackney page. "As of 27.6.04 Leisure Connection's web page http://clissold.leisureconnection.co.uk still referred to 'the closure of Clissold Leisure Centre last week'. Clissold closed on 26 November 2003."

This LC Clissold web page was checked today and is still carrying the same message of recent closure. It continues to promise, "We will keep all our users informed of progress." PB

9.12.04 Letters from Hackney Gazette (p.16) "Paying But Not Getting Service"

HACKNEY Council’s audited accounts for 2003/04 contain some interesting figures on Clissold Leisure Centre. Perhaps the most interesting one is the one we’re not allowed to know the amount of payments to Leisure Connection, the company contracted to run the centre.

Leisure Connection are still being paid the full management fee to provide this service to Hackney. I doubt that these payments can be recouped through the legal action against Hodder Associates. So council tax payers are paying for a service they’re not receiving. Leisure Connection have also received some payments out of the £387,000 legal fees paid in 2003/04.

This does raise the question again of whether contracting out of public services always represents best value. When the centre eventually reopens Hackney people need to be sure they’ll have a sound building. Of course, we want a working pool again as soon as possible, but the last thing we need is for a centre that might seem okay for a few years, but then turns out to need further repair. Patching up, even to the tune of £5.1 million, won't do, only a fundamental overhaul.

I am sure that mayor Jules Pipe is hoping that the centre will be open by the time of the next council and mayoral elections in 2006. but if it means taking longer to get the work done properly then that should be done.

There has still never been any public explanation or inquiry into the reasons why the leisure centre project was so mismanaged, although it now seems clear that those councillors in charge at the time failed to exercise any control over it.

Is there ever to be one, or are the reasons to fade away and be forgotten, leading to a danger that the next time Hackney embarks on a big capital project (like the new town hall extension) history will repeat itself’?

Mischa Borris, Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Hackney North & Stoke Newington.

Britannia and King's Hall Letter

THE lido is to open soon — hooray! Clissold Leisure Centre may also open its doors again — yippee! But hang on a minute. What about the current provision of swimming pools?

The pool at Britannia has been closed for more than a week, which means that King's Hall has the only pool in Hackney. On Saturday morning, I tried take my children swimming, but at King’s Hall there are lessons and adult-only lane swimming at that time. This meant I could not go swimming.

Surely there’s a clause in the tract that Leisure Connection has signed with Hackney Council that talks about providing facilities all Hackney residents? The company’s performance Saturday would be in breach of that.

I did go to King’s Hall in the morning and found that at 11.4 there were only six people in the pool — four of them having swimming lessons. What a tiny number for a Saturday morning.

So, not only does Leisure Connection fail to provide a pool for Hackney swimmers, but it also scares them away. No doubt many swimmers chose to go to pools in neighbouring boroughs. I hope the council is reviewing the contract with Leisure Connection.

Damian Zane (address supplied)

From Not the Clissold website 4.6.04

"I went down to Kings Hall yesterday for my daily swim in their pool I now refer to as the 'soup' (the water quality has really deteriorated over the past few weeks) the scene that met me was the usual chaos the comes with any event other than 'normal' operation. The changing rooms were in the worst condition I have ever seen...FILTH!"

Sport England Report on Clissold

On 9.6.04 Barry Chivers, Director of Governance, Risk and Assurance at the Sport England wrote to Diane Abbott MP enclosing what Barry called a “report that details the background, management issues and outlines the options on a trust and a temporary swimming (sic) to assist the London Borough of Hackney”.

The sections relevant to LC are:

6. Leisure Connections (LC) took over the management of the site in January 2002 although the management of the site was only signed in July 2003 and therefore they did not introduce initiatives fully until this time. A sport development plan was therefore not anticipated for another six months.

7.Concerns have been raised by LBH (London Borough of Hackney) over the standards of cleaning by LC and it was recommended that all areas work towards achieving Quest accreditation. The concerns over cleaning have evolved into claims by LBH that neglect by LC has had a detrimental effect on the fabric and buildings of the facility. LC have responsibility for the day to day cleaning and maintenance of the facility with daily, monthly and quarterly cleaning schedules. LC also has an in house technical director of the pool, plant and all other technical issues.

8. Security at the facility has also been highlighted, it was possible for the mystery visitor used as part of the lottery monitoring by Sport England to roam the facility unchallenged, having walked straight past the two receptionists without paying an entry fee.

The full report can be seen at http://filer.weblogger.com/clissoldleisureManilaWebsite/infodocs/sportenglandreport1.pdf

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