King's Meadow Pool

The King's Meadow Swimming Baths is a dilapidated Edwardian open air swimming pool in the vicinity of the River Thames - there has been controversy over what to do with the site for years. The arguments fall very broadly into two categories: either to demolish the site and then redevelop it, or to restore (and improve) the site - retaining its original use as a swimming pool. At present (late 2009), courtesy of a Reading Council 'U' turn, campaigners wanting to restore the site to its original use seem to be in the ascendant - a major surprise when the recent history of the site is reviewed.

Reading Council's Labour administration for a long time supported the first option - to tear the Edwardian building down, and then redevelop it. In August 2004 it grandly unveiled its proposals for the baths - the remnants of the swimming pool were to be bulldozed, and then replaced with a hotel, restaurants and shops. Former RBC Labour Leader Dave Sutton said: "it looks like a run-down railway platform. We have got a derelict building ..." (Reading Evening Post 10/08/04)

The plans of the RBC were thrown into disarray, however, when English Heritage entered the fray. Originally the heritage group had said that the baths were not worth protecting - opening the way for the Council (which jointly administers the site with the Environment Agency) to demolish the site. But English Heritage then had a change of heart, and gave the swimming pools site listed status. The Council's plans for the site were blocked.

In the background, the Caversham-based King's Meadow Campaign (http://www.kingsmeadowbaths.org.uk) was lobbying for the restoration of the swimming baths, suggesting that the water area could be made coverable in the winter. The Campaign had related plans for the site that included building a pavilion, cafeteria and changing rooms there - at an estimated cost of about £2m.

The RBC and the Environment Agency took matters forward in January 2008 by putting the King's Meadow swimming baths and the associated Caversham Lock Island site on the open market. A partner was sought to turn the site into an "attractive riverside area", with the surveyors Lambert Smith Hampton being instructed to manage the sale. The Council's announcement was followed by open day at the site on February 27th, with potential buyers for the site being given access to the baths.

The spring and early summer months of 2008 were accompanied by a succession of letters to the local papers suggesting differing uses for the site. The tone of the letters was often far from complimentary with regards the old baths - which were described as "freezing" and "a dreadful eyesore".

After several months of relative hiatus, the RBC Cabinet ruled on 7th July 2008 that just two rival schemes were to be considered. One was a proposal from the property developers Askett Hawk Developments to turn the site into a large-scale hotel (similar to what was promoted by the Council back in 2004). The other proposal was from the Caversham community group King's Meadow Campaign to retain the Edwardian open-air pool for public use. Both parties were asked to submit more detailed proposals, with the proviso that they would present their revised applications to the RBC's culture and scrutiny panel.

The RBC sports and leisure scrutiny panel eventually met to discuss (and vote on) the conflicting proposals at its meeting on the evening of Wednesday, 25th March 2009. The Panel voted by a majority decision to recommend to the RBC Cabinet (which was to meets on Tuesday, April 14th) that the developer Askett Hawk (AH) should be allowed to completely redevelop King's Meadow and Caversham Lock Island. The developer would build a 50-bed hotel, bars, restaurants and multi-storey car park on the site. The decision of the Council panel, which was taken for financial reasons, came with a caveat that they did not entirely accept the scale for the buildings and for the car park.

The recommendation to build a hotel came as a huge blow to the King's Meadow Campaign (KMC), with its detailed plans for the redevelopment and retention of the King's Meadow baths for public use. Amid strong allegations that the Council had favoured the AH scheme from the outset, the panel's chair, Conservative Cllr Tom Stanway cast the vote that swung the decision for AH, saying that "we have to make a decision that is economically viable". Labour Cllr Richard Stainthorp also voted for AH, saying: "I am not convinced the KMC's figures stack up. I have a lot more confidence in Askett Hawk".

The decision led to concern from CADRA, the environmental group Caversham Globe and others. Bob O'Neill of the KMC (which we at Caversham.org.uk support) said: "the KMC never had a fair crack of at the whip ... ...the Council report now levels the community scheme to a mere commercial entity, measured against a financial yardstick". One councillor asked at the meeting on the 25th March what the public actually wanted to see on the site - whether they actually wanted (or would be happy to see) such a bulky development on a prime piece of Reading river frontage that was currently parkland.

The RBC meeting on the 25th March initiated an eventful few days concerning the redevelopment plans for the public baths site. First off was a major meeting organised by the King's Meadow Campaign (KMC) on Wednesday, April 8th. More than 160 people attended the meeting at Mapledurham Pavilion, which discussed the opposing proposals of the KMC and Askett Hawk for the site. The groundswell of opinion was for the KMC plan to restore and extend the public baths there (to include a café) with winter use as an ice rink. Several RBC councillors told the meeting that the Askett Hawk plan for a 50-bed / 11-storey(!) hotel at the site, as it stood, was unlikely to be acceptable.

The KMC-organised meeting was followed by the RBC cabinet meeting on Tuesday, April 14th, which discussed the AH proposals that had been recommended to the cabinet by the RBC's sports and leisure scrutiny panel at its meeting in late March. The furore over the Panel's recommendation in favour of the hotel plans seems to have disconcerted some members of the RBC cabinet. At the meeting, members expressed misgivings about AH's plans, with RBC culture and sport leader Graeme Hoskin saying: "we absolutely will not accept any overall loss of open and green space and the development must be of an appropriate size and scale". He went on to say that although AH was the preferred bidder, its proposals needed substantial change to get final approval, adding "AH believes it can do it, and if they can't, we go back to KMC, simple as that". The general disquiet over the Council's recommendations for King's Meadow resulted in leader of the RBC's Conservative councillors, Andrew Cumpsty, 'calling in' the cabinet decision (which favours AH). At the Council's corporate, community and external affairs scrutiny panel meeting on Wednesday, April 15th 2009, Cllr Cumpsty urged the cabinet to reconsider its decision to give AH a period of exclusivity to work on its hotel plans further - instead asking for both AH and the KMC to resubmit their plans addressing the 'flaws' in both sets of proposals. The week ended with the matter having to return to the RBC cabinet for another decision.

Several letters to the local Reading papers accompanied the week's news concerning King's Meadow. A letter from Labour Cllr Graeme Hoskin reiterated his remarks above: "the Council will not allow any overall loss of green open space, the park will not be built on, the trees by the river will be protected and any final proposals must meet our strict planning brief for the area". A separate letter (under the headline 'Askett Hawk doesn't care about our town') from Val Harding pointed out that there would be significant disruption and upheaval if the AH hotel plans were allowed to proceed, and that trees on the site would almost certainly suffer. Commenting that the current swimming pool building fits in well with its surroundings, and that "this is a quiet part of the river that has already been marred by Legoland apartments", she ended with a plea to the RBC: "listen to the people who voted you in - not to the developers who couldn't care less about Reading". A letter from Mapledurham's Councillor Fred Pugh reiterated the RBC Conservatives' stance on the issue - in summary, although the hotel scheme had the best prospects for success, it was "not acceptable in its present form" and (according to Councillor Pugh) "the KMC proposal is still in the frame, as the fall back position".

On May 21st, Caversham and KMC activist Bob O'Neill in a letter to the 'Post' urged Conservative Councillor Jeanette Skeats and Labour Councillor Graeme Hoskins, as the lead councillors for sport and leisure on the RBC, to provide substantive detail for allegations that the KMC plans were financially seriously flawed. Bob O'Neill's impetus was rewarded by an announcement that the RBC Cabinet was to 're-examine' its decision to back the Askett Hawk hotel proposals at its meeting on Monday, June 1st. The Cabinet was urged to get both Askett Hawk and the KMC to do more work on their proposals because both schemes had 'significant flaws'. Separately, the 'Post' revealed that Askett Hawk had said it would not spend any more money on the project unless it was given a period of exclusivity as the preferred developer at the site. The decision to call in the plans had been taken by the Council's Corporate, Community and External Affairs scrutiny panel, chaired by RBC Thames Ward Conservative Councillor David Stevens. At the meeting, the RBC Cabinet asked Council officers to work with the hotel developer Askett Hawk and the KMC on 'detailed heads of terms' - to provide unbinding business information to the Council as landowner on how their competing schemes to redevelop the King's Meadow Baths would be paid for.

Some months then passed until a further RBC Cabinet meeting on Monday, 28th September 2009. This took the unexpected decision to reverse the Council's earlier recommendation in favour of Askett Hawk. Instead, it was recommended that the Kings Meadow Campaign should be given the opportunity to redevelop the Kings Meadow Baths site into an open air swimming pool / ice rink - so long as it was able, in a two-year period, to find the £2.5m necessary to fund the redevelopment. Members of the KMC were reported to have sat open-mouthed at the meeting as the Council Cabinet announced the 'U' turn - and the RBC decision was viewed as a personal victory for the KMC's activist Bob O'Neill. David Adams, development director for Askett Hawk, said of the decision: "it came as a complete surprise and was very disappointing ... ...one can only imagine that, with the election coming up in May, politics has played a part" ...

The KMC was reported by 'Get Reading' to have followed up the decision in its favour by utilising the help of students at the University of Reading in a plan to cut the cost of labour on the project. The 'Students in Free Enterprise' (SIFE) group were reported to be contacting specialist tradespeople with regards working on the restoration scheme ('Get Reading', 02/10/09 p2), and there were additional proposals to use the services of 'NEETS' (16 to 18 year olds not in employment, education or training) to keep down costs.

(Updated 14/02/10)