On 25 January 2021, the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee met online (recording here). The agenda items concerning tentative plans to re-open the bathing ponds and lido from 29 March 2021 and the proposed 2021 swimming charges, were buried late in a long agenda. These items are to be found at 1’14” and 1’52” in the recording respectively.
Despite some comments about the inflation-busting price rises for pond concession season tickets (21% for a six-month ticket and 15% for a 12-month ticket) and access to cash payment, the overall package was accepted. This will go to the next meeting of the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods and Queen’s Park Management Committee on 24 February 2021 at 4pm (papers will be uploaded here as well as the online link, when they become available).
The latest developments on Heath finances and charging to swim are covered in the local press here (Ham & High 26 January 2021), here (Camden New Journal 28 January 2021) and here (Camden New Journal letters 28 January 2021).
A support scheme, the existence of which was used to justify the charging enforcement decisions in 2020, still has not happened. There is a limited list of concessions, based on a poor understanding of the benefits system or life on a low income. Ad hoc and belated approaches by the City to voluntary sector organisations in Camden will be of no assistance to the many swimmers who travel to the ponds from other boroughs (two thirds of swimmers according to our own survey, come from outside Camden).
At the Consultative Committee meeting on 25 January 2021, buried even deeper in the papers, there was reference to a feasibility study into charging to use toilets on the Heath, using contactless payment, which is also mentioned briefly in the meeting at 1′ 50″. There are no depths to which the City of London Corporation is not prepared to sink. We know what happened when Heath toilets were closed during the first lockdown and it does not take a genius to work out what would happen if charging were to be introduced.
If you would like to share your views on the toilet charging proposal (details are here on the last page) please contact the Chair of the Consultative and Management Committees Anne Fairweather at Anne.Fairweather@cityoflondon.gov.uk. Please copy your email to the Heath Superintendent Bob Warnock at Bob.Warnock@cityoflondon.gov.uk and klpamailbox@gmail.com.
