Putney Leisure Centre’s 33-metre pool is staying full length, and its poolside sauna is staying downstairs, the campaigner who fought to save both says.
Dan Hawtrey, who organised the “Save Putney’s 33-metre pool” campaign, says Ethan Brooks, Wandsworth’s Cabinet Member for Environment, confirmed both reversals to him by phone on Thursday. Brooks told him the plan to shorten the pool to 25 metres has been “definitively shelved,” and that Places Leisure, which runs the centre, has said the sauna and steam room will stay in the pool area rather than move upstairs.
After an outcry back in March, Places Leisure ran a survey on residents’ thoughts about the Leisure Centre’s renovation and feedback came back “overwhelmingly against” shortening the pool. Faced with that, Places Leisure chose not to go ahead with the change, which would have standardised it to a modern pool size, but significantly shortened it and remove one of the few 33m public pools that exist in the UK, contained within a building that won architects’ awards when it was first built.
The plan to shorten the pool and move the sauna was put into Places Leisure’s contract to run the centre without any public consultation, Putney.news reported in June. A petition against it passed 1,000 signatures within days, and reached 1,660 signatures by the time West Putney councillor Nick Austin presented it to Full Council on 22 July. The plan was paused, not scrapped, leading to uncertainty. Now the plans are dead.
The sauna fight was different: people objected on accessibility grounds. Moving the sauna upstairs would mean swimmers “get out of the pool, get changed to go upstairs, then get changed again” just to use it, a change it warned would hit “the more elderly and infirm” hardest.
“Our campaign’s position throughout was that a 33 metre pool is a rare asset that is enjoyed by a large number of people in the community, with many different views on why it should be preserved,” Hawtrey said. “Swimming teaching, often raised as a reason for shortening the pool, is already provided in the pool by roping off lanes, and a reduction in the pool length was never necessary to deliver flexible programming. We’re all very happy that Places Leisure has finally seen sense.”
“Our thanks goes to Councillor Ethan Brooks, who took the time to listen and engage with us throughout the campaign,” he added.
Wandsworth Council and Places Leisure are each said to be preparing their own formal announcements, not yet public. Neither has confirmed this account directly. Putney.news will update this story once they do.
Spare a thought for those of us adults who want to learn to swim. I can assure you that the roped off lane system currently used in the pool is not effective and does not work well. This looks like rather egocentric campaigning by those who already swim very well. I am disappointed not to have seen coverage of the views of others. The leisure centre should be an amenity for everyone in the community.