Tom Daley Supports Campaign to Save Crouch End Diving Boards

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Permalink Reply by james walsh on February 17, 2014 at 15:58

What a great guy - we love diving

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Permalink Reply by maggie on February 17, 2014 at 16:50

Well done to Tom for supporting this, (from a fellow Janner). Its crazy that after forty years of diving at Park Road we can no longer "afford" a diving pool; another example of a private company lying to get the contract and then wriggling to get out of paying for the commitments that they have made, and with the approval of Haringey Council. Disgraceful.

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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on February 17, 2014 at 19:55

“We need more around the country so we can spread the net wide to find new divers.

I heartily agree with young Tom. If the Council would only erect divers high diving boards throughout Finsbury Park, then spread the net wide enough, nobody would get hurt and we'd eventually find most of the new divers.

Glad to see young Oliver Reed (2nd from left) already showing his great namesake's most prominent features.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 23, 2014 at 23:06

Below is a copy of a letter from Cllr Richard Watson, Haringey "Cabinet" councillor;
about the Park Road Diving Board. It was circulated on Sunday 23 February 2014.

"As you may be aware, there has been a lot of interest in the past couple of weeks about the £15 million refurbishment of the borough’s leisure centres and in particular the proposed transfer of diving facilities from Park Road to Tottenham Green later this year which has led to an active campaign to stop this move."

"There are a number of points that I want to clarify to about this move and what will be on offer."

"Haringey is one of just six London boroughs which continue to offer public diving facilities. We are proud of that and fully intend to not only keep diving in the borough, but to make the sport available to even more residents and enhance the diving facilities on offer. There are NO plans to end diving in the borough now or in the future."

"Original plans by Fusion, the borough’s leisure centre operator, were to maintain diving facilities at Park Road and install a moving floor to allow the pool to also be used for a wider range of activities than now including school swimming, aqua aerobics, swimming lessons and scuba diving whilst ensuring the pool remains at a depth to allow diving to continue. This is a key part of Fusion’s plan to meet the Council’s target to increase use across Haringey’s leisure centres by 2% every year which for Park Road is an additional 100,000 visits per year."

"It has now become clear that it’s not possible for Fusion to maintain the diving boards at Park Road as making the required changes to the diving pool to install the moving floor would increase costs of the works by more than £1 million and would delay the opening of the new facilities by six months."

"The refurbishment plans were halted to look at what options there were to make sure diving could continue within the borough whilst ensuring that the wider refurbishment work could continue and enabling Fusion to meet the Council’s targets to increase usage. This has led to Fusion’s plan to move diving to Tottenham Green, where there is already a moving floor available in one of the pools but there has not been diving facilities available for a number of years."

"We have been in regular contact with Haringey Aquatics Club as one of the main users of the diving facilities at Park Road and I have met with them and representatives of the campaign and I am again next week. Fusion have made a number of commitments to the club about the move to Tottenham Green, which have been welcomed by Haringey Aquatics Club as talks continue. These include:

• poolside spectator seats
• better facilities for performance review and coaching
• a diving harness for the sports hall trampoline
• a club development plan including marketing and coaching development
• a support package to enhance provision for divers and help ensure the club is not left out of pocket"

"Further information, including a detailed briefing on the current situation is available on the council’s website through the following link: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/leisure-services-improvements.htm"

Best wishes
Richard

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