• This seems to be poor management again. Is it deliberate incompetence?  Perhaps officers should be personally liable for the results of ongoing neglect of this important building.
• Perhaps ‘they’ should have the lost revenue from the Baths being closed stopped from their salaries
• Sad to see the reopening date keeps going back (now April/May).  It’s as though any excuse (now flaking paint) to delay opening.
• Councillor Kennedy asks does the pool sit as a sport or heritage site – I say it must sit as both.  Keep up the pressure on them. This building must not be allowed to close as a pool.
• Labour Councillors want us to believe that lead paint was being used in 2004?  They must think we’re mugs!
• Anyone fancy a sweepstake on next excuse for not opening the Moseley Rd baths. My moneys on a blown light bulb in reception.
• Hmm, did they confirm which year? Let’s hope it’s 2012. This family needs to swim.
• Thanks also to Moseley Shoals who sent us an e-mail outlining the impact the closure has had on their swimming club, making it nigh on impossible to swim as a club.

Of course, using this blog is nowhere near as effective as the public contacting the press and Councillors directly – follow this link for details of Councillors.  Hall Green Constituency Councillors will be voting on the options in March, so please address e-mails to them.  Cllr Tony Kennedy chairs the group and Cllr Martin Mullaney is the current Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture.

In an age when many people have such full work, family and social commitments it takes a lot to keep a community group such as ours going. Many well-intentioned organisations never make it to their fifth birthday, so it’s testament to those volunteers who give so freely of their time for a cause they feel passionately about that the group has made it this far and is still going strong. We’ve got a core of around a dozen regulars and others who get involved on a more ad hoc basis for events such as our annual Memories and Memorabilia Day, and conducting interviews for our Heritage Lottery Funded Pool of Memories project.

We have an excellent relationship with the staff at Moseley Road Baths, not least manager Kishor (Dave) Flora and have generally found the local media to be supportive of the building and increasingly aware of its historical importance, both locally and nationally. There have been many highlights during our first five years, but celebrating Moseley Road Baths’ 100th birthday in October 2007 with a visit from the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, establishing our online Virtual Tour and receiving a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to research the building’s history, interview past and present MRB users and help local schoolchildren make films about the baths and their social history, are perhaps amongst the most memorable.

We’ve met some amazing people, such as octogenarian Philip Morris, who came back to undertake a fundraising swim at the baths in 2009, the first time he’d returned since the mid-1930s! Howard Edwards and Doris Gamble (he played in dance bands at the baths, she taught youngsters to swim) are two more who come to mind, Then there are the others, such as Celia Reeves of Anderton Park School, Val and Bron from Balsall Heath Local History Society, and Ian Dungavell of The Victorian Society as well as our friends at the wonderful Victoria Baths in Manchester. None are regular Moseley Road Baths swimmers, but all are both passionate about the building and understanding of its vital importance as a community swimming pool. And a special mention for Played in Britain series editor Simon Inglis and long-term Moseley Road Baths campaigner Selina Stewart – without their enthusiasm that first meeting would never have taken place.

We must also mention Cllr. Martin Mullaney, Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. Although the long-term future of Moseley Road Baths is not yet assured, Martin has proved to be a determined supporter of the baths and has battled sceptical colleagues who might have used the structural problems experienced at MRB this year as an excuse to close the building down for good.

Finally, and undoubtedly most important of all, are those Moseley Road Baths swimmers and bathers past and present who support our events, come on our tours, join our mailing list, follow our news on Facebook, Twitter and via our website, and who can’t wait for early 2012 when Moseley Road Baths once again re-opens for business.

The Friends of Moseley Road Baths will be holding a 5th Birthday/Christmas Party at the Old Moseley Arms in Tindal Street (off Edward Road), Balsall Heath from 8pm on Friday, December 9th 2011 – we hope to see as many of you there as possible.

So, following on from that, Steve Beauchampé has dug out a list of lidos in and around Birmingham over the years. Please let us know if you remember any of these!

Open Air Pools and Lidos in Birmingham and District

• Brookvale Park, Park Road, Erdington (7th October 1909-1926)
• Bournville Lido, Oak Farm Road, Bournville (2nd July 1937-c1972 demolished c1976; 1977-1987, demolished 1997) now housing
• Bournville Men’s Open Baths, Linden Road (1898-c1936/7) now the Settling Pool
• Cannon Hill Park Bathing Pool (1st September 1873; reconstructed 15th June 1921-1938)
• Dartmouth Park, Devonshire Drive, West Bromwich (1887-)
• Keeper’s Pool Lido, Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield (June 30th 1887-1933; 1933-1961; 1961-March 2002) closed and demolished after fire, site now landscaped
• Greswolde Lido/Pool – behind The Greswolde Hotel/Restaurant, High Street, Knowle, Solihull – now flats, (13th June 1936-cAug 1965)
• Malvern Hall (or Park) Lido, Malvern Park, Solihull, opened (c1944-c September 1982) now overgrown/derelict
• Shirley Sports Lido and Swimming Pool, Sansome Road, Shirley; (6th June 1936-1939) now offices
• Small Heath Park Lido, Small Heath Park (aka Victoria Park) (9th July 1883; reconstructed 14th June 1922-1938)
• Stechford Lido, Station Road, Stechford (August 1964-1991) now Cascades leisure pool (covered)
• West Heath Lido (The Bath Tub), Aldridge Road, West Heath (1st July 1937-1940)

The closure of Moseley Road Methodist Church leaves yet another vacant building in what was once the bustling heart of Balsall Heath. For the Friends of Moseley Road Baths however the closure is particularly sad. Located directly opposite the Baths, the church has played host to several of our most important events. On November 27th 2006 it was the venue for the public meeting that lead to the group’s formation. Henceforth it hosted our monthly Committee meetings and our inaugural AGM. Those early Committee meetings are etched in the mind; we shared the building with a group of local ukelele players so our discussions were always set to music coming from the room next door!

Perhaps the most memorable event we staged at the church came on the afternoon of Tuesday October 30th 2007, with the Centenary Tea Dance that marked the 100th Birthday of Moseley Road Baths. Our special guests that day were the then Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, who followed a guided tour of the baths conducted by manager Dave Flora and members of the Friends by joining well over 100 of MRB’s supporters to eat cakes and sandwiches, dance and reminisce.

In June 2008 we gathered together around 80 representatives of interested groups for a seminar on the future of the Baths, chaired by architectural historian Simon Inglis (whose initial impetus had led to the formation of our group). Simon returned in 2009 for our annual Memories and Memorabilia Day where his superb illustrated talk on Britain’s historic indoor swimming pools enraptured an audience of around 100. The event was the second of our Memories and Memorabilia Days but doubts over the future of the venue contributed to the decision to switch last year’s event to the Balsall Heath Church Centre in Edward Road.

So goodbye to Moseley Road Methodist Church and a particular note of thanks to Nan for all the help she has given us. Let’s hope there’ll be a new Methodist church opening in Balsall Heath soon.

The Church was built after the previous Methodist Church on the site was destroyed in bombing raids in 1940.  There has been a Methodist Church on the site since 1872.  The Friends of Moseley Road Baths have used rooms within the building, as well as the Church Hall, to stage numerous events, including our Centenary Teadance, several Memories and Memorabilia Day events as well as regular committee and planning meetings.

However, for some years closure has been on the cards, and it is clear that the building needs investment.  We don’t know why the closure is happening now, or indeed what the plans are for the congregation or the site.  Let’s hope that positive things arise from this.

You can read more about the closure on the Balsall Heath Local History Society’s website (always worth a look on their site regardless!).  There will also be a number of events taking place this weekend, including a Church Service, a celebration and a display of the Church’s archives.  For more details please send an e-mail to rosaliemarsha93@hotmail.com.

As an aside – if candidates do want their views known, it would be preferable to receive replies in a format that we could easily pop online, and in plenty of time before the election.  Just sayin’.

A Leisure Trust is essentially an independent body which will take the responsibility for providing the services that the council currently has a statutory duty to provide.  Many councils currently use this model (including neighbouring Sandwell).  Many reasons are cited for this, not least the ability to raise more funds that are currently unavailable to local authorities.

Andrew Brightwell has been doing some sterling investigative journalism over the past few months to find out why councils are so keen to pass responsibility over to Leisure Trusts, and whether the assumptions made about them are correct.  I really recommend having a read through his blog, Where Can We Swim? which has loads of well researched facts and figures, many specific to Birmingham.  His most recent post, Investigating Leisure Trusts: The real work starts now!! summarises just some of his research and calls on all of us to scrutinise the process that our local councillors and council officers are working on behind the scenes.

Friends of Moseley Road Baths have major misgivings about transferring services to a Trust.  These include the need to protect staff pay and conditions (one of the most valuable assets in any public service), maintain and improve standards, sensitively protect the fabric of the building and to commit to accessibility for all.

We also have concerns about the nature of any body taking over services.  Will they, for instance, invest any profits back into the service, can they be accountable and responsive to service users (whose taxes still pay for the service) and will we be able to put them under the same level of scrutiny as any other public body?  At the present time such trusts are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act – an anomaly that MP Tom Brake is trying to address.

So, what are your thoughts?  Is Councillor Mullaney presenting us with a quick fix which is too good to be true, or is the ‘Big Society’ vision of devolving power to trusts and community groups a sustainable, successful model for swimming pools that we should aspire to?  What questions should Friends of Moseley Road Baths be asking of the Council.  Is it maybe the case that this model could work for other pools, but not for a Grade II* listed building?  Oh, and please, please, take time to have a look at Andy’s site and leave your comments and questions!

BHIOP is an alliance of organisations and individuals in Balsall Heath, whose aim is to cut the neighbourhood’s carbon dioxide emissions. Our Action Plan identifies Moseley Road Baths as a site of importance for achieving carbon reductions.

Moseley Road Baths has the potential to incorporate new technologies in any new refurbishment, with major energy and water savings in its operation. These would produce proportional savings in the running costs of the baths and so assist their financial viability in the long term. 19^th century architecture can be saved by modern technology.

1. Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

The Baths currently buy in mains gas and electricity. These are major elements in its running costs. The gas boiler is out of date, inefficient and takes up a lot of space.

In the future, there could be a Combined Heat and Power plant that burns gas on site to make steam, which in turn generates electricity. The waste product would be warm water, which can be used to heat the baths and the building. Swimming baths suit CHP plants well, because they require warm water in both summer and winter. By contrast, the current CHP scheme in the Birmingham city centre/Broad St area will be producing warm water in summer when there is almost no demand for space heating. One of these CHP plants is at Aston University whose campus includes the historic Woodcock Street Baths. The parallel with Balsall Heath should be obvious.

A CHP plant at Moseley Road Baths could meet the onsite need for electricity. Any surplus can be sold to the national grid, i.e. the baths would be a power station.

A report produced in 2008 by Utilicom for the City Council’s Urban Design section concluded that a 70 kw gas-fired CHP plant installed in the Mosley Road Baths, in place of the existing boiler would be technically and economically justified. It would produce electricity for the building at 80% efficiency because the waste heat could be used by the Baths for space heating and hot water. The carbon saving would be 140 tons of C02 per year. It would replace 30% of the heat used by the baths. Electricity generated would be 455 Mwh, or 88% of the current usage of the Baths and Library. If the electricity supply could be linked to the next door Health Centre, then its electricity use would justify a larger CHP plant (100 kw or 40% more output) with a further reduction to the heating cost of the Baths.

The position has been transformed by the announcement (July 2010) by the new Coalition government that local authorities can henceforth sell electricity to the national grid and keep the receipts. The whole area could benefit from locally- produced electricity from the Baths, while receipts would offset the cost of running the baths.

An even more ambitious idea would be to site one of a ring of planned CHP plants for Birmingham in or near the baths. These CHP plants are a crucial part of Birmingham’s ‘Climate Change Action Plan’ (March 2010) that aims to reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2025. One possibility suggested by Aston University is to fire such a CHP network from gas derived from wastes www.ebri.org.uk/BirminghamVision.htm

2. Water Supply

The Baths were originally provided with their own on-site water supply, in the form of a deep 750 foot bore hole into the water bearing strata below. When this was discontinued, the drinking water supply was unmetered, so zero cost. Today, mains water is metered and has become a significant cost item. Tests have apparently shown the water to have traces of heavy metals – hardly surprising when it has lain stagnant in the pipes for decades. If pumped out, we would surely come to pure water from the deep strata as before. Water for swimming in does not need to be treated to drinking quality – this is wasteful.

The water table under Birmingham is rising, due to the closure of manufacturing industries that used to pump water out and discharge it into rivers. Pumping from the borehole under the baths may even help prevent future flooding, as well as leaving water in Severn Trent’s reservoirs for drinking purposes.

3. Chlorine

Chlorine has a major factor in corroding metal work and masonry, which is very expensive to rectify in a historic building. Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to use chlorine in public baths. Past rates of corrosion of the building should not be taken as continuing into the future,

Discontinuing chlorine would prevent pollution from the waste water into the public drains. It would improve air quality in the baths. This means that less ventilation would be needed, so admitting less cold air in winter.

There seems to be evidence that chlorine is associated with childhood asthma and hay fever. Given the great increase in asthma levels noted by children’s services in Balsall Heath, the alternative disinfectant, copper-silver should be used in future. This chlorine free environment could be important selling point in attracting users to the baths.

Reference

‘Chlorine Inhalation Toxicity From Vapors Generated by Swimming Pool Chlorinator Tablets’ by Brian R. Wood MD1, John L. Colombo MD1, and Blaine E. Benson. ‘PEDIATRICS’ Vol. 79 No. 3 March 1987, pp. 427-430

Amongst the pictures was a photo from Emma Jones (editorialgirl) of the Gala Pool at Moseley Road Baths which you can view on the Guardian’s site.  The article incorrectly describes the swimming pool as abandoned (there is another fully functioning pool on site), but it’s not difficult to see why they drew that conclusion.  I’m not sure how I feel about it: the pool is absolutely gorgeous, even in its present state, and I think that the more publicity the building has the better, but it’s absolutely shameful that such a building remains in the ownership of Birmingham City Council in such a state.  I feel embarrassed that my local pool should so frequently be on ‘most endangered’ and ‘most neglected’ lists, but it seems that our local politicians share no such concern.  Their silence over the past few months has been deafening.

The current state of play is that we have been presented with some three year old figures for the full refurbishment of the Gala Pool (estimated cost, £9m), but it has been made clear that this possible work is tied in with the future of Sparkhill Baths, which will be rebuilt on the current site.  Whilst that is decided Moseley Road Baths is in a continuing state of decline, with urgent work required to make the building watertight.  We took the volunteers from our Pool of Memories Project around the building a few weeks ago (more on that later!), and we were all shocked at just how bad the first floor flat is looking.

So, if you share our despair, think about dropping some of the local councillors a line and asking them what they plan to do in the immediate future to preserve Moseley Road Baths.

Martin.Mullaney@birmingham.gov.uk – Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture

Sparkbrook Councillors
Salma.Yaqoob@birmingham.gov.uk
Mohammed.Ishtiaq@birmingham.gov.uk
Shokat.Ali@birmingham.gov.uk

Better still, consider attending one of their Advice Surgeries.  Let us know how you get on!

Almost all of the girls attend Heath Mount Primary School, one of the schools still able to swim at the pool regularly. It’s clear that they love the building, and they all spoke animatedly about it. They were also all curious – about where the stairs lead to, about why the Gala Pool is closed, and why people used to have baths there.

We looked through the pictures in the excellent ‘Great Lengths’ book at pools around the country, and the conversation veered from pools in London and Sharm-el-Sheik to the Victorians and the Second World War.

The fact is that Moseley Road Baths gets people excited. It may be its beauty, it may be a particular memory, or it may be just one of the many stories of events that have happened within its walls. Today was one of those days when I feel immensely proud of this gem that sits on my doorstep, and excited by the curiosity that people of all ages have about the building.  If that’s not what ‘civic pride’ is about I don’t know what is…