Here’s my latest column for the Ham & High, published online on 18 February here  and in the print edition on 16 February.  Please support your local community newspapers.

“I’m delighted that Park Road Pools, including the diving pool, have just reopened.  I’ve missed them and my inbox has overflowed with messages from people who felt the same.  “Nothing hurts in the water” wrote one elderly resident with painful, arthritic joints.  A mum and baby group told me that meeting at the lido was “the highlight of their week”, and I lost count of the number of people saying how much swimming benefited their own or their children’s mental health.  The word “sanctuary” kept coming up, and I know how residents feel because it is for me too.  I’m passionate about swimming and go as often as I can.  The water is a perfect place to be active, particularly for people whose health conditions make that a struggle on land.

Their closure, and the ongoing closure of Tottenham Green Pool, was high on my agenda when I met Haringey Council recently and David Lammy and I have also written to the Council to raise residents’ wider concerns about their deteriorating condition over recent months.  I know the Council are taking this seriously and welcome their commitment to close working with Fusion to ensure all our pools remain open, safe, and welcoming for visitors.

It matters because community swimming pools are vital hubs.  Yet, worryingly, across the country they’re under real threat because of soaring energy prices and staffing shortages, with many still struggling to regain customers since the pandemic.   It’s an issue I’ve repeatedly raised in Parliament as chair and founder of the all-party group on swimming.  I’ve met the Sports Minister, urged the Government to rethink their short-sighted decision to omit pools from their new energy bill relief scheme, raised countless Parliamentary Questions and before Christmas I presented Swim England’s #SaveOurPools petition signed by over 50,000 people.

Organisations across the physical activity sector have issued stark warnings of higher prices, reduced services, and closures if the Government doesn’t step up.  Many children, particularly from black and minority ethnic groups already leave school unable to swim.  Yet whether it’s the arts or music, swimming pools or grassroots sports, we have a Conservative Government that knows the value of nothing.  On a purely economic level it is self-defeating – every £1 spent on community sport and physical activity generates £4 and swimming alone has been shown to save the NHS £350 million each year.

But it goes beyond the economic benefit, pools bring such joy – as all your messages have shown.  I can’t wait to be back at Park Road, but I’ll keep fighting for all our pools until the Government steps up to protect the facilities we love and need.”