Birmingham – Page 5 – Friends of Moseley Road Baths

Baths to reopen after Christmas

Update on Moseley Road baths –25th August 2011 – just in from Cllr Mullaney

The date for the re-opening of Moseley Road baths has been put back to the New Year, following the discovery of large amounts of loose asbestos in the basement area.

My last blog update was on 25th July and can be seen at http://martinmullaney.blogspot.com/2011/07/update-on-moseley-road-baths-25-th-july.html

The following is a brief update on where we are with re-opening Pool 2.

Pool 2 closed in December 2010, after it was found that the steel lintel above the fire exit in this pool was corroded so much, that it was in danger of collapsing and pulling down the wall and roof above it.
This lintel has now been replaced with a stainless steel lintel

While the new lintel was being inserted, the Council’s Health and Safety team inspected the basement and raised serious concerns about the structural integrity of a series of temporary metal props holding up the ground floor plate, which in turn were holding up the roof. The Health and Safety team insisted that these should be replaced with permanent props.

Before work could begin on installing these permanent props, the Health and Safety team designated the basement as a ‘confined working area’ and put in a wholes series of stringent working conditions, including an asbestos survey.
The asbestos survey was completed in mid-August and confirms that there are substantial amounts of loose Amosite and Chrysotile asbestos in the basement. Both types of asbestos are the most hazardous type of asbestos. Bits of gasket containing asbestos and flaks of rust covered in asbestos material have over the years laid on the floor of the basement. During that time, the basement has flooded several times, with the loose asbestos spreading throughout the basement, mixed in with other debris.

I attach a photo of a photo from the asbestos report showing gaskets and flaks of rust lying on the basement floor that contain Chrysotile asbestos.

All this asbestos needs to be removed, before the work on installing the permanent props begins.

The cost of removing the asbestos will be £80,000 and adds 10 weeks to the programme. We hope to have the money signed off next week and with the installation of the permanent prop, we expect pool 2 to be open after Christmas 2011, subject to no further problems being found.

I have enquired as to whether we need to do any more asbestos surveys in the rest of the building. I am assured that over the years all other parts of Moseley Road baths have had asbestos surveys and the basement was the only section not to have been surveyed.

I have also asked for the Asbestos survey for the basement to be checked to see if it can be made public on request. I hope to have an answer on this next week. Please let me know if you wish to be e-mailed a copy.

Tour of Stirchley Baths

This just in from a member of the group – more details to follow as we get them!

‘Found out that there will be a last chance to see around inside Stirchley Baths (closed 25 years ago) on Saturday 3rd September between 11 and 3. Council have sold site and other land around to Tesco. There will be a community centre inside the shell of the building (a bit like the Nechells model I suppose) but this is a chance to look at the old cubicles and tiling inside before they destroy it.

It doesn’t say you need to book but they are expecting a great deal of interest….’

UPDATE:

More details on the Bournville News site – apparently last time over 80 people attended and had to queue round the block! Get there early!

Digital Balsall Heath

We’re really excited to hear about this collaboration between the smashing folks over at Balsall Heath Local History Society (who have been really helpful with our research and have supported countless events that we’ve hosted) and MACE‘s (Media Archive for Central England) ‘Full Circle’ Project. There’s a full report of the launch event on MACE’s blog.

The collaboration has seen staff from MACE assist local historians in locating archive film footage and then convert it into a format which can then be added to the MACE archive and used by local groups. In this case, material will appear on the new Digital Balsall Heath site, which aims to be an online, interactive resource for people wanting to look at the history and heritage of the area.

Best of luck to the group, we shall most certainly be adding material as our own Pool of Memories Project develops!

Birmingham University To Build 50m Swimming Pool

This article originally appeared in TheBirminghamPress.com on 8th August

Birmingham’s long quest for a 50-metre swimming pool appears to have taken a major step forward with the announcement today by the University of Birmingham of plans for a major redevelopment of sports facilities at its main Edgbaston campus.

The University will construct a 50-metre pool along with a new sports centre at the junction of Bristol Road and Edgbaston Park Road, on land partially occupied by the Gun Barrels public house. The existing Munrow Sports Centre, opened in 1963 and which includes a 25m pool (dating from 1976), will be demolished although the adjacent athletics track will be retained.

The pool, scheduled to open in 2014, will cost around £11m, but at only 17m wide (6 lanes) it will not conform to International Olympic Committee standards and neither will it include diving facilities, Depth will be a constant 2 metres although a moveable floor will allow for sections of the pool to be made shallower to accommodate less proficient swimmers and specific user groups. A 400-seat spectator gallery will run alongside the pool.

The sports centre forms part of a wider £175m expansion plan including new library facilities, student accommodation and staff car parking announced today, It will be operated and managed by the University with the pool capable of being divided into two 25-metre tanks by use of a boom. This would allow it to be utilised by more than one type of pool user simultaneously.

Today’s announcement may signal the death knell for the city council’s proposed £58m Birmingham Aquatic and Leisure Centre (BALC) planned for a site on St. Vincent Street opposite the National Indoor Arena for Sport in Ladywood. Although BALC was lauded as both ambitious and impressive, its’ financing arrangements were never resolved (with a shortfall of almost £30m) and the project was criticised as being unaffordable at a time when community pools across the city were in need of cash. It met opposition from both local residents and Labour Leader (and Ladywood Councillor) Albert Bore and with expectations of Labour regaining control of the city at next May’s Council elections and no prospect of the funding shortfall for BALC being bridged, it was anticipated that the scheme would be scrapped by next summer.

In contrast, funding for the new University of Birmingham pool appears to be secure. The University is one of the city’s wealthiest institutions and is currently building a new centre for its music department (to include a 400-seat auditorium) set to open in 2012, part of an ongoing programme of new buildings and refurbishments at the campus that stretches back several years.

However, today’s announcement of a 50-metre pool so close to the heart of Selly Oak must cast doubt over the long-term future of two municipal swimming pools, Tiverton Road (the city’s oldest publicly-run pool, dating from 1906 and located just a few hundred yards from the campus) and Linden Road Instructional Pool (situated next to the Cadbury factory and opened in 1936).

While the Council Cabinet agreed in principle in late 2009 to invest heavily in community pools, faced with the need to make stringent savings following sizeable reductions in central government grants, the Council may be tempted to abandon the two pools (it owns Tiverton Road but hires Linden Road) and book time at the University’s new facility instead.

Such a move would doubtless face strong opposition from individual swimmers and pool user groups who benefit from the long opening hours and accessibility offered by municipal run pools. In recent years similar proposals for dual share pools in Harborne and Sparkhill have met with vehement opposition, with the council eventually backing down in both cases.

Responding to today’s announcement, Birmingham City Council Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture Martin Mullaney told The Birmingham Press that there were no plans to close Tiverton Road or stop using Linden Road, but that the Council would monitor the situation once the new University facilities were operational.

“We Want To Swim” Demo

As the six-week school summer holidays got underway a group of frustrated parents and children descended on Moseley Road Baths in Balsall Heath to complain about the ongoing closure of their favourite pool.

Summer holiday 'non-swim'

The Baths shut for essential repairs at Christmas for what Birmingham City Council initially claimed would be just six weeks, but more than six months later there’s still no sign of the building reopening, with the Council acknowledging that it will take another nine weeks for additional maintenance work to be carried out, leaving locals without a public pool, a situation exacerbated by the long-term closure of nearby Sparkhill Baths.

Around twenty Moseley Road Baths regulars attended Monday’s demonstration, organised by the Friends of Moseley Road Baths group. Jenny Wale, who came along with her daughters Millie (aged 9) and Sadie (11) said: “My children have nowhere to swim locally and because of the closure we have to drive several miles to our nearest pool. They’re missing out on something they love.”

Summer holiday 'non-swim'

David Pratt from Moseley Shoals swimming club was another demonstrator: “We are currently using Small Heath Leisure Centre to swim but we’d love to have our local baths back operating again.” The club have also tried using Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre at Alcester Lanes End but found it unsuitable for their requirements, being more of a leisure pool.

Friends’ Secretary Rachel Gillies remarked: “The school holidays have just begun, the weather’s been getting warmer and local children are desperate to come and swim at their local pool. It’s crucial that the remaining building and maintenance work starts as soon as possible so that this valuable and well-loved community facility can re-open and be enjoyed by all.”

Although work to replace the lintel above a door in the swimming pool (the initial reason for the pool’s closure) has now been completed, Birmingham City Council’s Urban Design team are insisting on the replacement of temporary scaffolding in the basement, while an asbestos survey of this area must also be carried out. Negotiations between contractors and the Council over the costs and details of this work have been ongoing for several weeks. On Monday, Councillor Martin Mullaney, Chairman of Leisure, Sport and Culture, stated that it would be late September at the earliest before Moseley Road Baths re-opened.

For more information or additional comment, please contact Jen Austin, Friends of Moseley Road Baths: 0121 440 5794/07521 734 022

Friends of Moseley Road Baths

July 25th 2011

Join us for a ‘swim’

Dear MRB Supporter,

With Moseley Road Baths set to remain closed for the whole of the school holidays we’re inviting you (and if possible, your children) to join us outside the baths at noon this coming Monday, July 25th – the first day of the school holidays – to express disappointment and unhappiness at the continued closure of Moseley Road Baths. We’ll take some photos and are inviting the local press along so bring your swimming costume (not to wear, but to hold up as it makes a much better picture!) and together we’ll try to increase pressure on Birmingham City Council to get the baths reopened for the first time since December 2010.

If you can get along that would be great, if you could tell a friend, that would be fantastic too. We’ll need you for about 15 minutes. Thanks.

The Friends of Moseley Road Baths

Pupils banner — Local pupils have previously made their views known!

Public Meeting on Sparkhill Baths redevelopment

A public meeting to detail progress and gauge opinion on the redevelopment of Sparkhill Baths takes place next Tuesday, July 26th (7pm) at Sparkhill Cultural Centre, Stratford Road (next door to the existing baths building). The meeting is organised by the Save Our Swimming campaign group and the panel will include Councillor Martin Mullaney, Birmingham City Council Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture.

Sparkhill Pool and Fitness Centre closed in July 2008 following the discovery of asbestos in the swimming pool hall, but a surveyor’s report subsequently uncovered serious structural problems and, following a public consultation process in spring 2010, a decision was taken to demolish the existing structure, which dates from 1931 and is locally listed Grade ‘B’, and build a replacement along similar lines to that currently being erected in Harborne.

A recent Hall Green Constituency meeting agreed to support proposals taken by the Council Cabinet to hand the running of the new facility to the private sector, although the building would remain publicly owned (a similar arrangement will be implemented at Harborne when that facility opens in late 2011 or early 2012).

Local councillors, council officers and Hall Green MP Roger Godsiff have all been invited to attend but with the new building not expected to open until 2014 at the earliest, and the detailed design and specification still to be determined, there remains plenty of scope for public input.

This article first appeared in the Birmingham Press on July 20th 2011

Baths reopening delayed (again!)

We are sorry to have to tell you but we have now been informed that the pool will not be re-opening on July 15th as had been hoped. Following enquiries made by our Secretary, Rachel Gillies on Tuesday (later followed up with a ‘phone call to Councillor Martin Mullaney, BCC Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture), we understand that it will be a minimum of seven weeks (possibly longer), before the Baths re-opens.

The latest problem relates to the need to strengthen and replace the scaffolding in the basement (we mentioned this issue in an earlier post, last month). BCC safety officers have now asked for a series of measures to be taken in the basement before this work can commence. Cllr Mullaney tells us that he expects these measures to be attended to in around one week, but that the strengthening work itself will take six weeks, hence the minimum seven week timeframe.

One piece of good news however is that work on the new lintel over the door in Pool 2 should be completed this week, but with Tuesday marking exactly 6 months since the pool failed to re-open after the Christmas and New Year holidays, this latest failed deadline (the fifth, we think) is a serious blow and means that local children are likely to be unable to swim at MRB for most, if not all, of the summer holidays.

We’ll keep you updated, but please check back here for further details…and do let your local councillors know how frustrating it is to have Britain’s most historic pool closed for yet another couple of months. We would welcome your thoughts on the closure, either via e-mail or by using the comments box below.

Decisions on Sparkhill Baths Rebuilding

Tonight a discussion on the rebuilding of Sparkhill Pool and Fitness Centre will take place at the Hall Green Constituency Committee. We would encourage all regular swimmers and gym users to attend to ensure that their views are taken into account at what could be a very important meeting in deciding who rebuilds, finances and manages the new facility.

The procurement will be presented in full at this meeting. Amongst the options is Option 4: Design, build, operate and maintain by an external contractor. This clearly has ramifications for the way our leisure services are funded and managed. Both the Sparkhill Baths group and FoMRB have major misgivings about the role of the private sector in the city’s leisure services.

The meeting details are:

Venue: Kings Heath Primary School, Valentine Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14

Date and Time: Tuesday 28th June, 7pm

Agenda notes can be found at: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/democracy/Pages/MeetingDetail.aspx?MeetSchedID%3d18338

Baths to reopen in July

We received this update from Cllr Mullaney last night:

Update on Moseley Road baths -8th June 2011

First of all we have a new date for the re-opening of Pool 2 of Moseley Road baths – 15th July (plus or minus a day or two).

The stainless steel lintel above the fire exit door to Pool 2 is now in place. See attached photos (below).

The work to brick in this lintel in and remove the supporting frame will be complete by 8th July.

I have managed to secure the £50,000 to install permanent structural scaffolding in the basement. Work starts on the installation of this scaffolding on the coming Monday.

The background to why we need this permanent structural scaffolding can be read at http://martinmullaney.blogspot.com/2011/05/update-on-moseley-road-baths-10-th-may.html

Subject, to no further faults being found in the building, the pool will re-open to the public on 15th July thereabouts.

In the meantime, work is still moving forward on submitting a £5million bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2012 to start the first phase of restoring these baths.

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