Current issues at Sport England London

Sean Holt, Sport England’s London Region Director said:

“We know how important swimming is from our Active People survey which tells us that over 5.5 million adults swim every month.

Sport England has invested more money into swimming than any other sport – a total of £300 million since the start of the Lottery in 1994. More pools in London have opened than closed since 2004, which is good news for people wanting to swim in order to get active. In the capital there are a total of 559 public, education and commercially run pools, the equivalent of one for every 13,700 people in London.”

Background on diving facilities in London

Members of the public will have read in the media that the Crystal Palace Diving Centre was closed on 13 September after asbestos was found, with the centre due to reopen in June 2008.

Crystal Palace had been scheduled for closure for a £4 million refurbishment in November. This closure was brought forward once the asbestos was found. The London Development Agency (LDA) and Greenwich Leisure Ltd, who operate Crystal Palace, made significant steps to relocate the diving land training centre into a temporary facility on the site to enable diving training to continue. Representatives of UK Sport and British Diving visited the new temporary facility and declared it ‘the best diving land training centre in the UK.’

There are other diving facilities available in London, with five metre boards at Waltham Forest, Barnet, Havering, Wandsworth, Merton, Hayes. These facilities can cater for the vast majority of the divers who need to train.

Sport England passed the ownership and operation of the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace to the LDA in 2006 and we are no longer directly responsible for the facility. However, we are keen to find a solution and have been in discussions with all bodies involved, including the Mayor, Amateur Swimming Association and the divers themselves to make sure provision of diving facilities continue. In February 2004 we agreed to support the upkeep of the site and undertake various works in the two year period before the LDA took over the full lease. Since then we have made an award of £2.49 million lottery money to carry out essential maintenance work on the site.

A new pool for London

Swimming received a boost earlier this month when Sport England awarded Hillingdon Council £1.5 million towards the cost of the first 50 metre pool to be built in London in 40 years. The complex will offer a range of different sports under one roof including, a fitness centre, sports hall and swimming pool. By making sport convenient and giving people choice they are more likely to enjoy it and get the sporting habit.”