7 December 2007
"Edinburgh Leisure hosted three free ceilidhs on 30 November in honour of St Andrew"s Day, but with a difference " each dance was held in one of its swimming pools.
Taking place at The Royal Commonwealth Pool, Drumbrae Leisure Centre and Portobello Swim Centre, Edinburgh"s first ever Aqua-Ceilidhs included a twist on old reeling favourites, such as "Splashing White Sergeant", "Drip the Willow" and "Spray Gordons" with tartan clad callers keeping the aqua dancers in line.
The leisure trust"s Michael Pinkerton said: 'We hoped to bring something that little bit different to this year's St Andrews Day celebrations, but also to remind people that ceilidh dancing - and, of course, swimming - can be great fun and rewarding for all ages.
'All three aqua-ceilidhs were a resounding success with over 100 reelers, aged from 11 to 87, making a big splash for Scotland.' "
(Via Leisure Opportunities: Aqua-ceilidh causes a splash in Edinburgh: .)
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"This event which is unique to Stonehaven Folk Festival, was a resounding succes this year thanks to the excellent summer weather.
Local Band, Galik Bred, provided the music and the Open Air Pool was buzzing with excitement as bathers danced the Splashing White Sergeant Drip The Willow and other ceilidh dances. "
(Via Aqua Ceilidh: .)
...more ---> ..."From Building:
Hodder soon encountered the sort of problems that go with local government work. ‘In the early days, there was a constant change of personnel at the council,’ he recalls. ‘Tony Ellison, the chief executive, left, the [in-house] project manager changed. There was a tremendous lack of continuity.’
Kim Wright, director of community and leisure at Hackney, admits: ‘It’s no secret. There was no overall political control and it was a fairly chaotic managerial arrangement.’
But the real difficulties started in 1997 when Sport England, one of the scheme’s co-funders, designated Hackney a priority initiative area, which meant, according to Hodder, that there was money available to take the budget to £10m. However, what should have been a boon for the project quickly became a poisoned chalice.
‘That prompted Hackney, not unreasonably, to rethink the brief,’ says Hodder. ‘I felt there were things that we could improve … the size of the gym facility could be bigger, there was no spectators’ facility. There was quite a lot of public consultation that led to changes – for example, to the changing rooms because of the Orthodox Jewish community.’
There was debate, too, over the scheme’s two 25m swimming pools. Some felt that there should be a single 50m Olympic pool – an idea that was dropped – but one of the pools was stretched from six to eight lanes.
These were substantial changes, but Hackney was keen to start work on site as soon as possible, partly because it had been advised that this would save on VAT. However, tenders for the project came in at £13m, £3m higher than anticipated. The design team and the council came up with a compromise budget of £11.5m, but in the meantime Gleeson, the contractor, was being pushed to get started.
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(Via Hackney, Council of Chaos “It’s no secret... it was a fairly chaotic managerial arrangement.”: .)
...more ---> ...| London Borough of Hackney | 7 December 2007; 11:46:20 AM |# | | Discuss |
...more ---> ...Report recommending immediate closure - names of those recommending closure, and estimated cost of closure vs repair.
Your Council will vote to demolish your pool at the meeting at the Town Hall, on 4 Dec. 2008. 7.30pm. As a result there will be no leisure swimming in Harlow for 18 months. Children will have far less opportunity to learn to swim, and the very existence of sports clubs like Harlow Penguins is threatened.
What you can do.
| Harlow, Essex | 7 December 2007; 11:23:44 AM |# | | Discuss |
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