Dear everyone

Thank you to you all for signing this petition to save The Kingfisher

Please keep sharing the petition so as many people as possible tell Kingston Council that we do not believe that The Kingfisher Leisure Centre should be demolished

The more I look at the Council's reports and decisions, the more it hits me that the Council has taken their intention to demolish The Kingfisher as a given right from the start

Everything in their reports is about facilitating the council's plans for mass high-rise development across the town centre. Everything is about facilitating large scale growth which they want to happen at all costs. But there has been no equalities impact assessment of the demolition and there is no evidence that The Kingfisher could not be repaired and refurbished so that it has decades of life left in it

Repairing roofs can, it seems, keep a building going for another 140 years

Read the comment relating to repairs to the roof of the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum that are currently taking place. The Kingfisher is not the V&A, but a new roof would certainly secure The Kingfisher's life for the medium term

Sadly, it seems that maintenance of The Kingfisher has been neglected by the Council, the body that has a legal duty to maintain it for community use

The Ridge and Partners visual survey of The Kingfisher in 2020 is pretty damning

It refers to "poor paint protection" of the knuckle joints of the pool's steel space-frame structure contributing to their corrosion,"lack of maintenance of the structure" "inadequate ventilation", electrical "distribution boards...overdue their recommended 3 year EICR test by as many as 3 years", of the gym "roof mounted heat recovery unit in sirepair", of the Sauna HRU - "unit above rear entrance door not workingd espite MCP in plantroom stating it was on", of the Swimming Pool AHU - Supply: "Unit in poor condition and at high risk of failure".

Ridge suggest that the Council could replace the roof "and use it as an opportunity to create a feature roof structure"

It is we, existing Kingston residents, who face the biggest cost and loss and risk from the council's plans to demolish The Kingfisher

The decision to demolish The Kingfisher is not about the pool, which is why the decision does not stack up. Demolition of The Kingfisher is at the heart of the council's extremely risky growth plans

We will pay the price if these over-ambitious, that Kingston Council has agreed with The Mayor of London, fail

This is simply unacceptable

THE RISKS

1. Once The Kingfisher has been demolished, no new pool or leisure centre will ever get built
2. Financial and market risk exposure from the council's over-ambitious growth plans lead to financial losses and further cuts in essential services and even higher council tax than we pay now
3. The cost of a replacement leisure centre of some kind cannot be supported by planned development which ends up being even higher and denser than the council intends, having an even greater detrimental impact on our quality of life
4. The Council goes bust because it has overstretched its financial capacity by taking on more debt to finance a new leisure centre in a situation where its commercial activities are making a loss and the Cambridge Road Estate regeneration is already showing a £50 million deficit
5. A new leisure centre is dependent on mass development happening across the town centre, the sale of prime public sector assets and even more borrowing by the Council
6. There is every reason why the roof of The Kingfisher must be repaired, and long overdue work done to enable the centre to open again. This does not require mass development and the spoiling of Kingston to fund it. It eats up no open or green space and is the most sustainable option

Fixing the roof is also the least risky and most certain and least expensive option

It is the only option

And it is the option that Kingston Council are refusing to contemplate