Lots of updates

Sorry for the radio silence on this one - a lot has been happening. This morning we had a visit from Gerry Sutcliffe, the Minister for Sport, to Camberwell baths wheer he was greeted by supporters young and old. Pupils from Lyndhurst School presented the Minister with a CD recoding what the swimming in Camberwell means to them.

The next step is the application for capital modernization funding grant of £1.5m from the national swimming pool fund (see below for the full update on action).

DCMS Free Swimming Programme Background
* Southwark has signed up to deliver free swimming for over 60’s and under 16’s. This will be grant funded by the DCMS in 2009/10 & 2010/11.
* An Incentive Capital Payment of £81k has granted which will be used for project development
* By signing up to deliver free swimming, the council is eligible to submit a further funding application for a capital upgrade and modernisation project to support the delivery of free swimming the DCMS Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Fund - £25m available nationally 2009/10
* Camberwell Baths has been identified as Priority Project for this funding
* A £4.5M proposal has been drawn up which will secure long term future of the facility.
* A Stage 1 application was submitted in October 2008 (£1.5m)
* December 2008 we were informed that our Stage 1 application had been successful
* We have now been encouraged to Stage 2 with a deadline for submission of 2nd March 2009