" British Swimming and the ASA have committed themselves to helping to maintain and develop a strong and sustainable diving programme at Crystal Palace.

The national governing body is set to evaluate the current programme and will discuss how it can be taken forward to ensure a vibrant diving programme is in place for summer 2008 - when Crystal Palace is planned to re-open.

Working with the full co-operation of Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), the London Development Agency (LDA) Sport England and the Crystal Palace Diving Institute, British Swimming will analyse best practice examples from established elite diving clubs - Southampton Diving Academy, the City of Sheffield, Plymouth Diving and the City of Leeds - to decide the best way to move the current programme forward."

(Via Latest News Review to improve Crystal Palace diving: .)

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| Crystal Palace | 11 December 2007; 10:13:43 AM |# | | Discuss |

We are not quite sure why this has been posted again as a news item on Leisure Opportunities but it gives a good round-up of the present situation so we display it here anyway.

"Crystal Palace Diving Centre has been forced to undergo a £4m refurbishment, after asbestos was found on site.

The site has now been closed to the public and is expected to reopen in June 2008.

Joint operators, London Development Agency and Greenwich Leisure, have had to relocate the centre’s diving land training centre to a temporary facility on site to enable dive training to continue.

Sport England, which has awarded the centre £2.49m of lottery money in the past three years, for essential maintenance work, has been involved with the talks about the continued provision of diving facilities. Some of the training will have to be relocated to one of London’s six other pools which have five metre boards.

Sport England has invested more money into swimming than any other sport - £300m since 1994 – and has now awarded Hillingdon Council £1.5m towards the cost of the first 50m pool to be built in London for 40 years. "

(Via Leisure Opportunities Leisure Opportunities: Crystal Palace site closed due to asbestos find: .)

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| Crystal Palace | 31 October 2007; 11:29:22 AM |# | | Discuss |

"The Grade-II*-listed sports centre would be retained but the main swimming pool closed to create an additional "dry" sports arena. The new sports centre would have a grassed roof to blend in with the landscape and include a sports hall, health and fitness centre and café as well as the 50metre pool. At present, much of the building is closed while a £4million refurbishment takes place until next June."

(Via Evening Standard £67m revamp for Crystal Palace park: .)

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| Crystal Palace | 22 October 2007; 9:43:46 AM |# | | Discuss |

From Mark Sesnan chief executive GLL ...

"Further to the regrettable need for the sudden closure of the whole complex at Crystal Palace on Friday 14th September, I am pleased to be able to inform you that the 25m pool at Crystal Palace will re-open to the public from Wednesday (26th September). The swimming timetable will be posted on our web site later today.

GLL and the LDA wish to apologise to all our Customers, Clubs and Users for the disruption and disappointment the closures have caused.

The good news is that the major (£4m+) investment taking place over the winter will enable us to reopen next Summer with much more confidence that we will be open to 2012 and beyond."

Well done GLL/LDA!

As of Wednesday 26 September we will be offering a public swimming programme (25m Training Pool) and Group Exercise programme (Old Dance Studio). A full timetable will be available on the website by Tuesday afternoon.

Facilities/activities reopening on Wednesday include: London Swim School; London Weightlifting Centre; London Leisure College; Climbing Wall.

Facilities currently open include: Jubilee Stand for Capel Manor College, Physiotherapy practice, & TJ's Mini Gym; tennis courts; stadium track; bar astro pitch; Lodge conference rooms.

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| Crystal Palace | 25 September 2007; 12:10:23 PM |# | | Discuss |

"The government has claimed that it is unsustainable to run many of these swimming pools due to subsidies and there are many private swimming pools. Well yeah, there are but they cost a lot especially gym membership. This has an dramatic impact on poorer sections of society who can ill afford these rates. Cheap and affordable council run sport centres are needed.

So the government will carry on pouring money into the Olympics yet council run sports centres are usually the first to get its budget slashed and also selling off the swimming pool sites is rather similar to selling off green spaces as it makes a massive profit. That's what it's all about!"

(Via stroppyblog: Friday rant....: .)

well spotted Pooling Resources ...more ---> ...

| Crystal Palace | 22 September 2007; 8:59:34 PM |# | | Discuss |