Representatives of the Hampstead Heath swimmers’ associations are due to attend an online meeting with City of London managers on Tuesday 25 August 2020 at 5.30 pm. The City of London has again refused to set up a virtual public gallery for this meeting (despite our repeated requests), but a recording will apparently be made available on their website after the meeting. We will circulate the link once we receive it.
Papers for this meeting were only circulated late on Friday afternoon and include the draft proposals for charging and managing swimmer numbers for the winter season from 21 September 2020, attached here.
When the City of London decided in March to introduce the punitive new charging regime, one of the mitigating factors was supposed to be a “hardship” fund, which has never materialised. Instead the City is now proposing a “Support Scheme” attached here which contains nothing new, only recycled and repackaged measures.
Both papers indicate that the City of London is continuing with its programme to make the ponds less accessible to many regular swimmers in order to maximise income.
Please continue to feed back to senior figures at the City of London your views on the charging regime and their management of the bathing ponds, using the following addresses:
Anne.Fairweather@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Bob.Warnock@cityoflondon.gov.uk
HH-Swimming@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Please copy your responses to klpamailbox@gmail.com.
Recent press coverage of the City of London’s mismanagement of the bathing ponds can be seen here.