Sydenham Swimming Pool Misery

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SydenhamHillAndy
Posts: 116
Joined: 20 Jul 2007 15:01
Location: SE26

Sydenham Swimming Pool Misery

Post by SydenhamHillAndy »

I only seem to come on here when I'm ranting - sorry for that. Next message will be one full of hope, rainbows and unicorns....

I'm a fairly regular user of the Swimming pool down by the big Sainsburys and, in general, the facilities are pretty good. However, the following just does my head in:

Sundays are one of the busiest days for Swimming Pools. Why on earth do the pools close for an hour several times during the day? The staff evidently don't disappear so why do they do it. A number of times now they have called an end to the session, several minutes before the official time and, as far as I can tell, for no particular reason.

Every week I see people take floats etc from the big piles by the childrens pool and every week they are asked to put them back. Firstly, I don't see why people can't use them anyway but secondly, why don't they simply put a sign up saying please don't take them.

Thirdly, one of the showers has been out of order for over a year. Where is the pride that just lets this go....

I'm constantly amazed by the poor quality of management and staff at the local swimming pools. You'd think that with degrees in Leisure Centre management the overall quality would improve....

Oh, and they have this no child rule during one of the Sunday afternoon sessions. I saw two fifteen year olds being kicked out for being too young even though only two adults were taking part.

I know that some of our councillors read this forum. Perhaps the council could do more than just outsource the management of these services and perhaps try and drive up quality rather than settle for mediocrity.
Chazza
Posts: 290
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 12:51
Location: Sydenham end of Venner Road

Post by Chazza »

Andy, I've never been to the swimming pool near Sainsbury's, but if you want to see an example of a well-run council leisure centre, I can recommend Beckenham Spa.
Juwlz
Posts: 749
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 20:49
Location: Outer Sydenham

Post by Juwlz »

Beckenham spa is a really great place and well run. The rest of the local sport centres I've been to treat the customers like their very existence is some kind of massive inconvenience.

Crystal Palace sports centre has got to be the worst. There are some nice staff there but there's some sort of problem whereby the management don't seem to have any actual power to do anything. Its like a sports centre version of fawlty towers.
Robin Orton
Posts: 3380
Joined: 9 Sep 2008 07:30
Location: London SE26

Post by Robin Orton »

I assume we are talking about The Bridge here. My wife and I go every week.

We find the pool itself fine. Routine maintenance seems to be a issue however - I agree with Andy about malfunctioning showers and there is also the usual swimming pool problem about broken/missing locks/keys for the lockers.

My main complaint is about communications. Again, I agree with Andy. It is (or at any rate had been in the past) quite difficult to find a weekly swimming timetable; lane dividers in the main pool come and go without explanation; the notice about how to swim in an orderly fashion when the pool is crowded is unclear. Although the staff are always in my experience polite, I have found they are unable to answer straightforward questions about for example why the main pool is closing and when it is to re-open. Management are generally invisible - there is no indication of who is in charge.

When I raised some of these issues using the email facility on the pool website (one of those irritating ones where they don't provide you with a copy of what you've written, thus making chasing it up very difficult), I got no answer.

Perhaps better staff training and a more energetic and pro-active management are what is needed.
sydeman
Posts: 148
Joined: 23 Sep 2007 07:15
Location: Upper Sydenham

Post by sydeman »

Does anyone use the Crystal Palace pools? The building has been partially refurbished and the pools themselves are great. However the staff are just something else. They appear not to be interested in the paying public, are very slow to serve you, and its just abysmal service. I go at lunchtime, so my time is quite short, but i always find i have to queue to pay even though there may be 2 or 3 people behind the counter not serving.
marymck
Posts: 1579
Joined: 9 Feb 2008 16:30
Location: Upper Kirkdale

Post by marymck »

The attitude with which too many local authorities run "their" leisure facilities really appals me.

My mother lives in Hampshire and a large part of her astronomical council tax goes to support two nearby leisure facilities.

One of these, Calshot Activities Centre, has a huge range of great facilities such as ski-ing, water sports and a climbing wall.

Last year I was staying at my mother's house, along with my 13 year old nephew. We were there for a week and thought it would be great if he could use some of the facilities my family has been paying for all these years.

So I took him along to see what we could book during the week he was there (during the school holidays!). Answer = nothing.

We were told the facilities weren't for the use of local people and holiday makers, but only for people taking part in official competitions or on long courses.

My poor nephew was so disappointed and the look on his face was heart rending.

We didn't see a single customer, but the staff all seemed to be having a jolly time using the facilities, so I guess that's all right then.
marymck
Posts: 1579
Joined: 9 Feb 2008 16:30
Location: Upper Kirkdale

Post by marymck »

Oh and while I'm ranting about how public money is spent ...

For the first time that I can remember, the National Archives did not have a stand at the family history show this year. They said the reason was that they don't want to encourage "day trippers" to use the archives.
Juwlz
Posts: 749
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 20:49
Location: Outer Sydenham

Post by Juwlz »

marymck

You are right,, this is exactly the type of thing that makes me mad too - the public should be able to use these facillities which they are paying for.

I pay for a membership at Crystal Palace sports centre, yet last year the sports centre was closed to members several times so that private events could happen. During these times apparently the presence of us full time paying members would have posed a 'security risk'.

Oh, and one time it was closed because an equestrian event as going on and apparently we had to stay away because we might get trampled by the horses.

Horses don't pay the membership fees but I do, so why the hell should I get shoved aside for some ruddy horses. I say NEEEIIGHH to this madness!
adam marshall
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Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:23
Location: sydenham

Re: Sydenham Swimming Pool Misery

Post by adam marshall »

Just to say, my toddler is booked in to 10am swimming lessons every monday at the bridge, and this morning they rang to cancel at 0900am, due to maintenance problems. This is a regular occurrence. the lessons themselves are very good. but the disruption due to maintenance problems .cancels out any benefit from a regular lesson
Robin Orton
Posts: 3380
Joined: 9 Sep 2008 07:30
Location: London SE26

Re: Sydenham Swimming Pool Misery

Post by Robin Orton »

I think it was a problem with the heating, which seems to happen quite frequently. At 9.00 am yesterday the main pool was overheated - like swimming in soup - but I was told that the training pool was very cold (although I don't think it was actually closed, at any rate for casual users. )

And the poolside showers still haven't been fixed - after how many years is it now?
maestro
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Joined: 27 Jun 2008 16:32
Location: 2nd most struck UK bridge

Re: Sydenham Swimming Pool Misery

Post by maestro »

Robin Orton wrote: At 9.00 am yesterday the main pool was overheated - like swimming in soup
But surely that would have made you a crouton?
Robin Orton
Posts: 3380
Joined: 9 Sep 2008 07:30
Location: London SE26

Re: Sydenham Swimming Pool Misery

Post by Robin Orton »

maestro wrote: But surely that would have made you a crouton?
Indeed - I'm getting crustier every day, I find.
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