Campaign – Page 4 – Friends of Moseley Road Baths

Baths reopening put back AGAIN

We have received an update on the work currently being done at Moseley Road Baths from Cllr Martin Mullaney. His letter addressed to our group puts the new date for completing work to remove asbestos in the basement, environmentally clean the area and erect new scaffolding at the end of February 2012.

Work to remove the asbestos started on 17th October – we reported that asbestos had been found on 25th August.

There is, however, some possible good news as Birmingham City Council is planning to make a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a first phase of work to improve the building. This is likely to be structural work to maintain the building.

The Friends of Moseley Road Baths and local swimmers highlighted back at the start of the summer holidays on a ‘We Want to Swim’ demo that the extended closure of the building (it originally closed for ‘5 weeks’ in December 2010 and has to date been closed over 10 months) meant that local children were missing the opportunity to go swimming, or even learn to swim in the first place. With neighbouring Sparkhill Baths permanently closed and other pools in the South of the city either busy or too far away, it’s really crucial that the building reopens as soon as is feasible.

We urge our supporters to keep in touch with local councillors and council officers to keep the pressure on – particularly with a local by-election coming up on 10th November and important local elections next May.

Baths reopening now scheduled for mid-Jan

Here is Cllr Mullaney’s latest update on work to the Baths, dated 29th September.

I attended a meeting this afternoon with the contractors who will shortly start working on re-opening Moseley Road baths. The good news is that we are still on target to re-open the swimming baths in mid-January 2012.

My last blog update was on 25th August and can be seen at http://martinmullaney.blogspot.com/2011/08/update-on-moseley-road-baths-25th.html

The contractors will move onto site on 17th October and spend six weeks removing all asbestos from the basement. End date is 25th November.

From 25th November, work will begin on installing the permanent structural scaffolding in the basement which will replace heavily corroded temporary scaffolding which is holding up large sections of the floor plate of the building. This work will take six weeks to complete. Taking into account the Christmas break, we anticipate work finishes mid-January and the baths re-opening.

On top of this work, I have successfully bid for money from the Council’s corporate centre to do the following:

£50,000 to prepare a Heritage Lottery bid for just over £5million for phase one of the works to restore these baths.

£80,000 for ‘sticking plaster’ works to get the swimming baths through the next two years, in preparation for any restoration monies. The ‘sticking plaster’ works have still to be finalised, but we hope these will include minor roof repair works, installation of missing rainwater guttering and a boiler service.

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.

“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!

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.

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.

moseley-road-baths3

moseley-road-baths1

moseley-road-baths2

Response from Andrew Hardie

Just as an update to our request for candidates in the local elections to send responses, we did in fact receive a handwritten letter from Andrew Hardie, the Conservative Candidate, a day after the election. As with some of the other responses, it was supportive of the facility, he has memories of swimming at the Baths, and he would like to ‘preserve, and indeed, widen its use after discussion with the Council, local GPs and schools.’ Unfortunately he fails to answer several of the questions we put to him.

As an aside – if candidates do want their views known, it would be preferable to receive replies in a format that we could easily pop online, and in plenty of time before the election. Just sayin’.

Response from Cllr Ishtiaq

Just as an update to the previous post where we published letters from two of the five candidates standing in today’s election… I spoke with Cllr. Ishtiaq (the retiring Cllr, standing for re-election today) and Cllr Shokat Ali, (both Respect Party) this morning. They inform me that a response was sent out to our letter within two days of them receiving it. Their position is against Trust ownership and they both want swimming to continue on the site.

If and when we receive the response we’ll post it up.

Candidates respond to our letter

A few weeks ago we sent out a letter to all candidates for the Sparkbrook Ward in the forthcoming local elections, to see what their views are on the future of Moseley Road Baths. We informed them that responses would be posted online. We have, despite requesting a response by 30th April received just two out of a possible five replies – from the Labour Party and Green Party candidates.

Our letter:

As you are a prospective Councillor for the Sparkbrook Ward, the Friends of Moseley Road Baths and our supporters are anxious to hear your position regarding one of the ward’s most important public buildings, Moseley Road Baths. You will be aware that it stands in the middle of Balsall Heath and has served the community for over a century. However, major investment and renovation is needed to maintain this Grade II* listed building, and to ensure that it continues to operate as a swimming facility.

We would like to know your answers to the following questions:

Are you committed to the future of swimming at Moseley Road Baths?
Are you committed to reopening the Gala Pool as a swimming pool?
Are you committed to maintaining the building and facilities under public ownership?
Are you committed to maintaining the building and facilities under public management?
Do you have any ideas as to how the building could be developed to meet the needs of the local community?

Response from Tony Kennedy – Labour Party Candidate

Thank you for your letter regarding Moseley Road Baths, I am happy to set out my thoughts, though please forgive me if my response does not follow the exact questions.

Firstly, I am totally committed to the complete renewal of all the existing and historic facilities of the baths. We have the last (and only) opportunity to retain, preserve and enhance this gem of a building and facility of local and national importance. I understand and value the utility of the Baths for local people, the many other users, and the passionate attachment to such a unique and beautiful building.

For many years I swam there at lunchtime and regularly took my (now grown) daughters for a ‘real’ swim; (amongst many other experiences there, I enjoyed a splendid underwater performance by the Birmingham Electronic Arts and Sound (BEAST) group). I understand and value the unique qualities of the Baths as a local facility, the last example of a public bathing facility, a historic and critically, a working building in a unique and important part of Birmingham.

Secondly, I am an experienced politician with good insights into political and financial processes and priorities; it is absolutely clear that the Baths are just one of many currently competing priorities in Birmingham and under the present CON/LIBDEM Coalition control will receive minimal ‘political maintenance’ support with the imminent prospect of closure when budget cuts dig deeper.

Thirdly, the only prospect of saving, preserving and enhancing the Baths is as a flagship facility as a flagship of a major ‘Moseley Road’ regeneration programme, creating a vibrant local centre with major external funding and linking to the City Centre Regeneration Zone and the A342 ‘string of pearls’ from Digbeth to Moseley road and Moseley/Kings Heath – this would also mean creating a major attraction of the local centre and the other presently dilapidated listed and significant buildings: Library, School of Arts, Dance Centre, Arts & Crafts building (The Make-It centre), Tram-shed etc.

I have led and won bids for major regeneration resources (Sparkbrook/Sparkhill SRB & URBAN £60 million, Aston Pride £54 million) and chaired the Sparkbrook & Sparkhill Regeneration Board and the East Birmingham & North Solihull Regeneration Board.

In short, we need a serious, strategic framework to justify major investment in the Baths and to demonstrate their role in the strategic development of the area and the city. We need a strategy which is ambitious, realistic, achievable, shared and demonstrably of value to a vibrant city.

Lastly, we need to change the nature of the debate and develop a wider vision for a regenerated locality with historic buildings, sustainable communities and a local centre integrated with nearby buildings and services: health, police, retail shops, library, community, faith and leisure facilities.

I propose creating a local centre steering group with the Friends of Moseley Road Baths at its heart. Every opportunity should be pursued (lottery etc.) for the Baths; however, major development will only be possible by demonstrating the catalytic effect of the development for the wider area.

In 2003/4 I chaired the ‘Local Centres’ regeneration strategy group under the then Labour-controlled council, Moseley Road was the top priority for a series of renewed local centres across the city- this was binned by the CONDEM coalition council when they took control, as was every other Labour Party policy.

Labour will win control of the Council in 2012, whilst the sitting Leader will become Interim Mayor in November this year with executive powers until the Mayoral election in 2013, so HE will have authority to make and set the budget (it would require 2/3rds of the full city council to overturn this. The CONDEMs have so miss-managed Birmingham City Council’s budget that currently 66% of the total Birmingham Council Tax revenue goes to service the debt accumulated on their pet projects (Harborne Baths, Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, ‘Central’ Library, etc.)

It does seem to me probable that the national coalition will open the purse-strings in a couple of years as and when the national economy picks up (they will sell the Government shares in the banks, for example, at a profit.) There are also opportunities to bid for lottery, European and other funds.

Given these circumstances, the Mayor needs to be convinced of the case for supporting a thriving local centre at Moseley Road and I am happy to help build and make this case and promote an ambitious scheme.

So, this is the context for the Baths. We need a ‘reality-check’ to take account of financial and political realities, build a compelling case for the future, and campaign hard to win the resources to achieve the shared vision. This campaign will not be won overnight and will take considerable communal effort. I pledge to work to these ends.

As for your questions, I support whatever the consensus of the community decides.

Best wishes,

Tony Kennedy

Labour Party Candidate

Sparkbrook Ward Election, 2011

Response from Charles Alldrick – Green Party Candidate (typed from handwritten letter)

Thank you for your letter on 20th Aprill[sic] 2011. My answers are the following.

I am committed to the fact all local children should be abel[sic] to swimming free of charge at Mosely[sic] Road Bath, which should remain open.
The Gala Pool should reopen to benefit the public.
Mosley[sic] Road Bath should owned and maintained by the city, however Friends of Mosely[sic] Road Bath should have controll[sic] over the runing[sic] for the interest of the public.
Undrer[sic] Public Health Mosely[sic] Road Bath the only public bath-wash left in Birmingham, hence Friends of Mosley[sic] Road Bath should be more recognised by the local authority and residence[sic].

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions.

Yours sincerely,

Charles Alldrick