Activists are toasting success after Hackney Council gave the green light to revive proposals for bringing back a youngsters’ splash pool.
While London Fields’ outdoor swimming facility draws plenty of attention, a smaller pool for kids has served local households seeking somewhere cost-free for recreation.
The facility originally launched in 1978, but public access ended in 2020 when substantial renovation became necessary, and despite earlier pledges it remained closed.
A campaign to restore the venue to community use, led by the London Fields User Group, kicked off in March and secured more than 900 names on a petition.
On Monday July 20, supporters held a demonstration outside Hackney Town Hall ahead of the petition being officially considered by the council cabinet.
One of the leading voices in the campaign, Cecilia Parr, pointed out that locals were losing access to something invaluable for young people that also helped take pressure off parents. According to Parr, parents of children under five face a vital period where child development depends on exploration and play, independence and creativity, but they simply do not have enough hours in the day. She shared these views with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Working alongside consultant psychiatrist Kate Highton, Ms Parr maintained that bringing the facility back would function as a public health measure to bridge the divide between the large proportion of local people living in apartments without any private outdoor area and the smaller group who do have gardens.
Ms Highton cautioned about a serious and expensive crisis in young people’s mental wellbeing, suggesting that safeguarding shared areas for families and neighbourhoods was the most effective response.
She told the cabinet that spaces like the paddling pool are some of the precious places where people from diverse communities come together, who are not served by the London Fields lido, and asked why if Haringey can run three paddling pools, they could not have one.
Ms Parr, 41, said she counted herself fortunate to have a garden where her children could play, particularly during the heatwaves that are becoming increasingly typical, which only strengthened her awareness of social inequality. She said her youngest is five, and it enrages her every time she walks past this paddling pool. Her kids are too old to use it now, but she could not let the issue go.
Hackney Council had previously undertaken to reinstate the paddling pool at London Fields.
In February 2020, shortly before pandemic restrictions took effect, the Labour-controlled authority shut the site for extensive work, with proposals eventually to merge it with a new training pool. However momentum dried up and the overhaul never materialised.
At the protest, locals Colin and Caroline Sears recounted happy recollections of the paddling pool their children, now adults, had enjoyed. They said they used to go there after school, take a picnic, and it was free. They noted that although the lido is fantastic, it is quite expensive if you have got a family.
Dyna Samuel, a childminder from the neighbourhood, said the loss of the paddling pool had left the area without a vital communal hub. She said they used to go and meet friends and family, and they would bond there. It was her son’s freedom space where he could go, splash in the water and relax. She explained that coming from a low-income family, she could not afford anything else at the time.
Ms Samuel noted that the closest outdoor area during warm weather required a lengthy trek, unlike London Fields which was practically on the doorstep.
After the petitioners presented their arguments, Hackney’s cabinet member responsible for climate, clean air, energy and transport, Cllr Jacob Cable (Green), committed to opening up the space immediately and setting up a task force to devise a financially viable scheme for reopening the pool.
Cllr Cable also pledged to sit down with campaigners to explore what the absolute minimum would be to make the space available in the short term before fully restoring the whole facility.
The campaign follows less than a month after the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, released the new Heat Ready London strategy to help the capital cope with increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves.
The heat resilience blueprint contains five principal objectives, including widening safe access to blue spaces such as swimming and other activities centred on London’s waterways that give residents opportunities to cool down.