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We’ve been completely inundated with letters and posters from the public calling for the reopening of the pool.  These were presented to Cllr Tony Kennedy as Chair of Hall Green Constituency at last night’s Constituency Committee.  We are continuing to put pressure on for an April reopening.  We also want to see our local councillors committing to a huge publicity drive to attract swimmers old and new.  This was verbally agreed, but we have yet to see if this has been minuted and if it will be acted on.

Here are just some of the excellent letters we have received from Clifton Junior School, Nelson Mandela School and Chandos School.  We have also had letters from SS John and Monica School, Percy Shurmer School and Tindal School.  Thank you all for your hard work!

Here is the latest news from BCC Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture, Cllr Martin Mullaney regarding Moseley Road Baths, and once again, it’s not good. I’m sure that we all share Councillor Mullaney’s frustration at the ongoing closure and we would welcome any thoughts that you have.

Update on Moseley Road Baths – 3rd February 2012

I’ve bad news on the re-opening of Moseley Road baths. The Council’s Health and Safety officers are now insisting that the ceiling of Pool 2 is painted to prevent flaking paint falling into the pool before it re-opens. This means that the re-opening has now been pushed back to the start of April.

I cannot express how furious (and upset) I am with this news and I have made my feelings clear to the Council’s Property Team who are ultimately responsible for the building.

As users of this historic swimming pool will know, the building closed in December 2010 to replace a completely rotten steel lintel above the fire exit door to Pool 2. What was supposed to be a six week closure, has been continually added to as Health and Safety find another issue that needs fixing. These have included removing asbestos from the basement and replacing temporary scaffolding with permanent scaffolding also in the basement.

All work in the basement will be finished on Friday 10th February and it was anticipated the building could open soon afterwards.

However, in the last few weeks, Property Services and Hall Green constituency office have raised concerns about the high level of flaking paint on the ceiling. To repaint the ceiling will involve emptying the pool of water; completely filling the room with scaffolding and taking a minimum of 8 weeks to do.

I have challenged the need to repaint this ceiling, since from my perspective the baths have been closed long enough and this constant discovery by Health and Safety of yet another issue, just as we are about to re-open has to stop.

Health and Safety have today insisted that the ceiling needs repainting before the public are allowed back. They have tested the paint and shown that the flaking paint is pulling off bits of the lead based paint underneath. Based on their analysis, the level of lead in the samples tested are so high that a volume equivalent to 24 grains of sugar falling into the pool would make the pool unsafe to swim. Please don’t shot me at this point, I am just the messager.

It is for that reason and with great reluctance, I have given the go ahead this afternoon to start the process of re-painting the ceiling. The Properties Team are assuring me that the contractors will be able to start erecting the scaffolding on Monday 13th February.

Martin Mullaney

We have received some information from Councillor Martin Mullaney, BCC Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture regarding the Council’s plans to submit a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the long overdue restoration of Moseley Road Baths

“We are about to start work on the Heritage Lottery bid to restore the baths. Our proposal is to submit a HLF bid in April. The bid would be for phase 1 of the restoration, totalling £8million. The £8million will include the following:
• Making the entire building stable, by completely fixing the roof and stopping any more leaks; removing all the dry rot from the caretakers area. This will stop any further decay in the building.
• Pool 2 – the present pool will remain an operating pool
• Pool 1 – the ornate First Class/Gala pool will be boarded over and used for community events. In phase 2 of the restoration we would aim to get this back as a swimming pool
• Possible installation of a Combined Heat and Power system, which would heat this building and all surrounding buildings.

Bidding for Heritage Lottery monies is a lengthy process and if successful, the earliest we could start on phase 1 of the restoration is 2014. It is estimated work would take two years to complete.”

Tuesday’s Hall Green Constituency meeting was, to say the last, a stormy affair but it was heartening to see so many Moseley Road Baths supporters making their voices heard following the latest developments concerning the building and the future of swimming in the area.

Thus it is sad and utterly frustrating to report that the meeting was told by Peter Hobbs, Service Intergration Manager for the Hall Green Constituency, that the re-opening date has been put back yet again, this time until April or May. This, the meeting was told, was due to the need to strip and repaint the ceiling of Pool 2 which is flaking and is thus considered a health hazard. Mr. Hobbs estimated that this work would cost between £70-80,000 including the erection of scaffolding.

Secondly, the meeting voted to produce a report outlining future options for Moseley Road Baths, in time for the next meeting, in March (the online Council agenda promised this report would be available at the meeting but work on it does not appear to have got underway). The main aim of this document appears to be to consider whether or not the baths should be operated by the Constituency and how they can be managed more economically, and though, when pressed, the Chairman, Councillor Tony Kennedy and those Councillors who supported the production of the document, insisted all of the options to be considered must have swimming at their heart, Councillor Kennedy also stated that the options review would be ‘a complex document’ adding, ‘does the pool sit as part of a sport or heritage facility.’

Clearly, there is much here of concern and we will update you as soon as we hear more and please let us know your views.

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Have you seen our ‘Virtual Tour’ of Moseley Road Baths?
www.moseleyroadbaths.co.uk

As some of you may have read in last Thursday’s Birmingham Mail, the future of Moseley Road Baths has been thrown into serious doubt by a suggestion that the Hall Green Constituency may refuse to sanction the pool’s reopening even once the final stage of the refurbishment works are completed in mid-late February.

A paper outlining ‘Future Options for Moseley Road Baths’ is to be discussed by the Constituency’s 12 local councillors at this Tuesday’s Hall Green Constituency meeting (January 17th, 7pm) at Hall Green Library, Stratford Road (near to the junction with Cole Bank Road, and almost opposite the Horse Shoes pub, buses 11 or 6 if using public transport). It is listed as Agenda item 10. It is quite likely that this report will only be made available shortly before the meeting so we have very little detail at present but what we have read and what we have been told over the last two days causes us much concern.

These meetings allow public intervention so there will be an opportunity to have your say. Please come along if you can and spread the word among other MRB users as this meeting could go along way to determining both the short and long term future of the baths.

The “Pool of Memories” project is now into its second year. We have been busy collecting memories, publicising the Baths wherever we can, and involving the local community and primary schools in the exploration of this important part of our heritage.

The archive we are building up through film, sound and the written word, will be an important resource for future generations and will ensure the history of our swimming baths is not lost.

Would you like to join our team of volunteer interviewers?

This would involve interviewing individuals who have a connection to the Baths.
Interviews are rarely more than 30 minutes long. Full support and training is given.
Any time you can spare is valuable to us, even if it is only a couple of hours a month.

This is Mark, one of our volunteers:

“My first year as part of the oral History Group has been extremely uplifting. I’ve been involved in a couple of interviews gaining self confidence, a sense of pride in the heritage of Moseley Road Baths and the participation in a project that I believe will result in a thoroughly rewarding and ultimately educational and resourceful archive.”

If you want to help in any way, please contact me, Jenny via the website or directly on: 07521734022 or jenaustin56@yahoo.com , and I will forward more information to you.

If you attended our Memories and Memorabilia Day in October 2009 you may have been fortunate enough to see Birmingham-born writer Simon Inglis’ excellent talk based on his book Great Lengths – The Historic Indoor Swimming Pools of Britain (Malavan Media, 2009).

As editor of Played in Britain, English Heritage’s critically acclaimed series of books on the UK’s sports buildings and landscapes, Simon returns to Birmingham this Wednesday, January 12th 2011 (7:30pm) to lecture on the same subject, but with particular reference to the historic importance of Moseley Road Baths, at the January meeting of the Victorian Society. The meeting is open to everyone and the venue is the Council House in Victoria Square (please use main entrance) with a £4 admission charge. It promises to be a highly entertaining and informative evening and one that, not unsurprisingly, the Friends of Moseley Road Baths very much recommend. Several members of our group will be in attendance so if you get along, come and say hello.

More information at www.victorian-society-bham.org.uk