Hi, my name is Steven Pratt, i am 36 years old and I grew up in the UK 1976-2000. I was very FORTUNATE to have had a decent sporting career as a junior swimmer. (8-14 years old). Winning literally hundreds of races including over 20 Hereford and Worcestershire titles, and a douzen Midland District and National titles. I was pretty much unbeatable in Butterfly and Backstroke at the age of 11.
However, after my sports career ended and I could no longer train 8 times a week, i was advised that SPORTS should be my study, and so i studied sports at college, completing a 3 year 'Sports and Leisure studies' course at Stourbridge college. (1993) I gained employment as a Life Guard at the new Crystal Leisure centre in Stourbridge, which replaced the legendary old pool with a new Multi-million pound fun pool: not much fun for serious competitive swimmers though)
After a year or so as a lifeguard I went on to teach swimming in the Dudley area to youngsters for around two years. (and for a while at Brierley Hill Swimming baths, which was demolished under suspect circumstances January 2006. Please seach this blog for 'Brierley Hill' to see more details). All my official (paid) swimming related works ended when i left for America on an intellectual journey. (I should also add that I once gave free swimming lessons to under privaliged children at Layola University, New Orleans in 2003.
Something clicked inside me, when i returned from America to the UK after 4 years swimming in rivers and freshwater lakes such as lake Tahoe and the Feather River, both in California. I realised that swimming in the UK is pretty much limited by the swimming facilities provided, and those facilities are being demolished, at least in my local DUDLEY METRO area. This is a fact i have observed over the last 6 years. This blog lays a testament to these facts.
Stourbridge Baths, Brierley Hill Baths and Coseley Baths have all been demolished, thats 3 pools that would be full of local swimming talent, training for competitive meets and possibly our future National champions? Water Polo, Sychronized swimming and diving could have been praticed in these pools if only they would have been saved. I hope not to sound like a moaning old bitter man, going on about what might have been and what coulda' or shoulda' happened. I find most political activity does not agree with my personal outlook on life, community, health, fitness and goodwill.
In the case of the destruction of swimming facilities by the local Dudley Metropolitan Council (Dudley Metro Culture Police) I cannot say it LOUD and CLEAR enough. Please STOP. Or at least, replace what you knock down with something else, and not a Tesco supermarket, thankyou very much.
As i have been saying for the last 6 years, the voices of the swimmers themselves, and the local community have been totally and utterly ignored on the issue of swimming, but now, during the OLYMPIC fever M.P's all around the country have started popping up with their cheap little speeches about SPORTS and PRESTIEGE and how proud we should be and how we should develope new SPORTS facilities across the country. (Aha, i say to myself, this is a trick, a cheap trick to ride the Olympic fever and come out of it as the good guys again, the saviours who will NOW begin to plan new sports parks, new sports programes and sports sponsorship corporations. Oh, thankyou for doing this, for cutting the blue ribbon. For giving us these new sports centers.
So i wanted to send a message of warning to anybody reading this blog post, SPORTS in Britain have been ravaged and crippled by both Labour and Conservative governments, SPORTS to mean two things: the facilities at which sports take place, and the inherent meaning in the term SPORTS. The Olympics have cost 25 Billion Pounds, 9 Billion of which is from the UK tax payers, or from the people. The three Dudley swimming pools I have mentioned above , together, would have required approx. 4 Million to repair and keep open. And, I estimate by now (August 2012) would have given more than 5 Million unique immersive swimming experiences to the community.
Since the pools were not being built but knocked down in Dudley i turned my interest to the Rivers and Canals, imagining them to be clean enough to swim in at some future point, and what it would take to achieve this, and, if anybody else though it worth doing. From that point i discovered the impossibility of swimming in the Stour due to pollution and obstructions in the first place. Then, once again i was confronted with the only option of doing it myself, since a meeting with my local M.P did not come to anything, not even an email or call to say No, just iced out: (i asked for funds, or donations to aquire a pair of river waders, some rope, and a hook, to begin cleaning the River Stour).
And so, you see, i found out that in the larger scheme of things, to me, our rivers are far more important than a swimming pool, and if we could maintain a river properly it could provide a free, zero emissions, zero running costs, swimming facility. As with a lake. Cherish your natural water facilities. This is my message.
Steven 'Fly Agaric 23' Pratt
Amsterdam
Aug. 6th 2012.
Showing posts with label stourbridge swimming club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stourbridge swimming club. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2012
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The British War On Swimming
I was attracted to the campaign to save Coseley Baths this year, partly because I was born not far from Coseley, so I consider the Dudley Bourough and the Black Country my home. It's where many friends and family live, so I have a personal interest in the Coseley Swimming Pool closure, and more generally any NEWS concerning swimming and swimming facilities in and around that area. It feels to me like I am somehow genetically programed to take an extra interest in "what's going on" around the Dudley & Stourbridge area, maybe I have some patriotic genes that have an urgency to express themselves? Whatever the reasons, I have found myself conducting independent research into swimming and swimming facilities due to a lack of such independent research. When it comes to the political, economic and psychological information concerning swimming I have found a wall of disinformation, crooks working for private-profit, and money-power motivated individuals using a - racket - to replace older swimming facilities with new - leisure complex corporations, contracted by a new business network.
As I have mentioned before at my blog, I have personally witnessed the destruction of 3 swimming pool's - Stourbridge (87), Brierley Hill (2005) and now Coseley (2009). And spent hundreds of hours writing, reading and communicating my thoughts about swimming, swimming pools and how governments in Britain manage or miss-manage as to what the case maybe - SPORT & LEISURE?
My observations of swimming in the Dudley area have some similarities between recent cases of swimming-pool closure's up and down the country, for example:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2009/11/05/council-to-press-ahead-with-pool-closure-bid-72703-25098524/
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1489317?UserKey=
http://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6875/Ceiling_problem_shuts_Golspie_pool__96_again.html
http://www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/4744099.Council_closes_Streatham_swimming_pool/
One of my early memories of the corporate grip over sports in Britain was when I competed in the West Midland District championships and won a couple of events, to discover that oil giant ESSO were the major sponsor, and had their logo's on T-Shirts, Banners, medals and prizes. I guess that swimming and swimming facilities has found advantages from going into business with large corporations, banks and other sponsors, but there are downsides to such collaborations too, depending on your geopolitical standpoints, or your conceptions of international capitalist corporatism. There can be no turning back the clocks, swimming pools are being knocked down and replaced by leisure centers as the UK gears up for the 2012 Olympics. The painfully obvious contradictions we get from the corporate sponsored news and telecommunications media surrounding the games are highlighted by the plight of swimming clubs, swimmer's and their vital facilities in the UK.
The London-centric attitude and economic bias toward developing the south of England, only adds to the insult and injury to the rest of the UK (and by extension the world) regarding sports facilities. Compare the numbers of new SHOPPING MALLS, and/or corporate supermarkets to new swimming pools available to the public and capable of providing a swimming facility for clubs too?
Maggie Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are somewhat in the firing-line here, both Labour and Conservative, for selling out their culture, agriculture, banking, entertainment and healthcare of the subjects they were hired to help, very simply, the British Government has spearheaded the international finance capitalism or global gangsterism partly to blame for this slump in public facilities and good old fashioned markets or fair and equal trade, and the rise in TESCO like private corporations. Tony Blair and TESCO highlight the sordid relationships. Most local telecommunications media seem immune to such alternative thinking and continue the river of lies and bullshit.
--Steve Fly.
As I have mentioned before at my blog, I have personally witnessed the destruction of 3 swimming pool's - Stourbridge (87), Brierley Hill (2005) and now Coseley (2009). And spent hundreds of hours writing, reading and communicating my thoughts about swimming, swimming pools and how governments in Britain manage or miss-manage as to what the case maybe - SPORT & LEISURE?
My observations of swimming in the Dudley area have some similarities between recent cases of swimming-pool closure's up and down the country, for example:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2009/11/05/council-to-press-ahead-with-pool-closure-bid-72703-25098524/
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1489317?UserKey=
http://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6875/Ceiling_problem_shuts_Golspie_pool__96_again.html
http://www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/4744099.Council_closes_Streatham_swimming_pool/
One of my early memories of the corporate grip over sports in Britain was when I competed in the West Midland District championships and won a couple of events, to discover that oil giant ESSO were the major sponsor, and had their logo's on T-Shirts, Banners, medals and prizes. I guess that swimming and swimming facilities has found advantages from going into business with large corporations, banks and other sponsors, but there are downsides to such collaborations too, depending on your geopolitical standpoints, or your conceptions of international capitalist corporatism. There can be no turning back the clocks, swimming pools are being knocked down and replaced by leisure centers as the UK gears up for the 2012 Olympics. The painfully obvious contradictions we get from the corporate sponsored news and telecommunications media surrounding the games are highlighted by the plight of swimming clubs, swimmer's and their vital facilities in the UK.
The London-centric attitude and economic bias toward developing the south of England, only adds to the insult and injury to the rest of the UK (and by extension the world) regarding sports facilities. Compare the numbers of new SHOPPING MALLS, and/or corporate supermarkets to new swimming pools available to the public and capable of providing a swimming facility for clubs too?
Maggie Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are somewhat in the firing-line here, both Labour and Conservative, for selling out their culture, agriculture, banking, entertainment and healthcare of the subjects they were hired to help, very simply, the British Government has spearheaded the international finance capitalism or global gangsterism partly to blame for this slump in public facilities and good old fashioned markets or fair and equal trade, and the rise in TESCO like private corporations. Tony Blair and TESCO highlight the sordid relationships. Most local telecommunications media seem immune to such alternative thinking and continue the river of lies and bullshit.
--Steve Fly.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
THE RIVER STOUR . FLOW. HISTORY.
Published deatils about the river stour - Stourbridge - make for good footnotes my book SHANNANIGUMS WAVE.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
DUDLEY ROTTEN BOROUGH COUNCIL
The bourough seems to be healthy, the people awake and thinking, it's the council and the business enterprise that are rotten, making deals with huge corporations, selling off land and property to the highest bidder, without the slightest idea of what culture, community and health mean, in 2009. Dudley is a beautiful bourough, the people from Dudley are down to earth folk, mostly working class folk governed and bullied by a conservative, old World War II government, still today, we are governed by dinosaurs. Out of touch with the revolution, connectivity, change and scientific research opposed to faith-based thinking and faith-based policy.
"Dudley is slammed as a 'rotten borough'
12:00pm Wednesday 9th September 2009
comment Comments (8) Have your say »
A FURIOUS baths campaigner slammed Dudley as a ‘rotten borough’ with a Scrooge council - fast on its way to becoming the most unpopular in history at meeting this week.
Angry Brian Guest, who has campaigned passionately to try and save Coseley Baths from the axe, unleashed a no holds-barred attack on Dudley Council when he got his chance to speak at Monday’s meeting of the select commitee on regeneration, culture and adult education.
Referring to a letter about the Conservative controlled council’s handling of the baths saga which features in the current edition of Private Eye magazine - he said: “Dudley is now classed nationally as a ‘rotten borough’.
“It shows this council is the most unpopular in Dudley’s history.”
He also hit out at the council for having the “audacity” to approve a 25 per cent pay rise for councillors shortly after offering “Dickensian” late night and early morning swimming times to young members of Brierley Hill Swimming Club - which has since been forced to close; and for hiking the prices of meals on wheels for the elderly by more than 50 per cent last year.
He continued: “I think everyone in Dudley would be ashamed if this is the best this administration can do.
“Everybody in Dudley is angry with this council, which is now known nationally as a council with no heart.
“This is a Scrooge council - but when the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future appeared to Scrooge he did put things right - proving he had a heart. But we know this council does not have a heart.”
Leader of Dudley Council - Councillor Anne Millward - said afterwards: “If we’re so rotten - why are we a four star authority?
“We have got to do things we don’t really want to do because the of recession and financial situation we find ourselves in.”
What do you think? Is Dudley a rotten borough? - http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/4588476.Dudley_is_slammed_as_a__rotten_borough_/
"£300,000 losses at baths says leader
A Black Country baths was losing more than £300,000 a year before closing last month, it was revealed today.
Dudley Council leader Councillor Anne Millward said it was costing them hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the pool open.
She said the council was snubbed by private leisure centre owners who said the Pear Tree Lane pool was “unviable”. The baths closed at the end of August. The council says the baths need £1 million of urgent repairs to make the roof safe and a further £1m of works to bring the building up to scratch.
Councillor Millward today said the council did not have the resources to keep the baths open – but reiterated that bids from any interested parties would be considered.
“If there is someone who has got the millions to bring it up to scratch and can then take a hit of more than £300,000 a year running the baths, I have said it before – we will speak to them,” she said. “But Coseley was making losses of a third of a million each year.
“We have spoken to private providers, we did that before the decision was taken to close the pool. They just did not see Coseley as a viable enterprise.”
Save Coseley Baths campaign spokesman Brian Guest said that it came as “no surprise” the baths were making a loss because the council had not shown the necessary commitment to the pool.
“I’m not surprised it was making that sort of loss because they reduced the staff and reduced the hours to such an extent it was not going to make money,” he said.
“Everyone knows swimming pools don’t make a profit and have to be subsidised but it is a service which should be kept for the community.”
Campaign leaders are taking legal advice about the possibility of mounting a courtroom bid to prevent demolition. Mr Guest is due to hear from barristers in London early next week. - http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/09/12/300000-losses-at-baths-says-leader/
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"Dudley is slammed as a 'rotten borough'
12:00pm Wednesday 9th September 2009
comment Comments (8) Have your say »
A FURIOUS baths campaigner slammed Dudley as a ‘rotten borough’ with a Scrooge council - fast on its way to becoming the most unpopular in history at meeting this week.
Angry Brian Guest, who has campaigned passionately to try and save Coseley Baths from the axe, unleashed a no holds-barred attack on Dudley Council when he got his chance to speak at Monday’s meeting of the select commitee on regeneration, culture and adult education.
Referring to a letter about the Conservative controlled council’s handling of the baths saga which features in the current edition of Private Eye magazine - he said: “Dudley is now classed nationally as a ‘rotten borough’.
“It shows this council is the most unpopular in Dudley’s history.”
He also hit out at the council for having the “audacity” to approve a 25 per cent pay rise for councillors shortly after offering “Dickensian” late night and early morning swimming times to young members of Brierley Hill Swimming Club - which has since been forced to close; and for hiking the prices of meals on wheels for the elderly by more than 50 per cent last year.
He continued: “I think everyone in Dudley would be ashamed if this is the best this administration can do.
“Everybody in Dudley is angry with this council, which is now known nationally as a council with no heart.
“This is a Scrooge council - but when the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future appeared to Scrooge he did put things right - proving he had a heart. But we know this council does not have a heart.”
Leader of Dudley Council - Councillor Anne Millward - said afterwards: “If we’re so rotten - why are we a four star authority?
“We have got to do things we don’t really want to do because the of recession and financial situation we find ourselves in.”
What do you think? Is Dudley a rotten borough? - http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/4588476.Dudley_is_slammed_as_a__rotten_borough_/
"£300,000 losses at baths says leader
A Black Country baths was losing more than £300,000 a year before closing last month, it was revealed today.
Dudley Council leader Councillor Anne Millward said it was costing them hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the pool open.
She said the council was snubbed by private leisure centre owners who said the Pear Tree Lane pool was “unviable”. The baths closed at the end of August. The council says the baths need £1 million of urgent repairs to make the roof safe and a further £1m of works to bring the building up to scratch.
Councillor Millward today said the council did not have the resources to keep the baths open – but reiterated that bids from any interested parties would be considered.
“If there is someone who has got the millions to bring it up to scratch and can then take a hit of more than £300,000 a year running the baths, I have said it before – we will speak to them,” she said. “But Coseley was making losses of a third of a million each year.
“We have spoken to private providers, we did that before the decision was taken to close the pool. They just did not see Coseley as a viable enterprise.”
Save Coseley Baths campaign spokesman Brian Guest said that it came as “no surprise” the baths were making a loss because the council had not shown the necessary commitment to the pool.
“I’m not surprised it was making that sort of loss because they reduced the staff and reduced the hours to such an extent it was not going to make money,” he said.
“Everyone knows swimming pools don’t make a profit and have to be subsidised but it is a service which should be kept for the community.”
Campaign leaders are taking legal advice about the possibility of mounting a courtroom bid to prevent demolition. Mr Guest is due to hear from barristers in London early next week. - http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/09/12/300000-losses-at-baths-says-leader/
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
DEADLEY COUNCIL STRIKE AND SINK BRIERLEY HILL SWIMMING CLUB.
I want to swim man, thats all
Without no water how do you fully front crawl?
all i got left is my freestyle, first off the blocks...
i don't care, i dive into rocks, mud ponds and sewers for sure.
I takes a dive into jive turkey rap land and build boats on jazz notes.
Coming back from a foreign land to an empty pool, Brierley Hill Baths demolished
i was planning swimmajik 33/3 yards.
Now its all gone bulldozed and its tragic, comic?
Coseley next? Can it be saved?
Without no water how do you fully front crawl?
all i got left is my freestyle, first off the blocks...
i don't care, i dive into rocks, mud ponds and sewers for sure.
I takes a dive into jive turkey rap land and build boats on jazz notes.
Coming back from a foreign land to an empty pool, Brierley Hill Baths demolished
i was planning swimmajik 33/3 yards.
Now its all gone bulldozed and its tragic, comic?
Coseley next? Can it be saved?
Swim club to shut as pool fight lost
Heartbroken swimmers were in tears when the move was announced by devastated volunteers who run the group at an emergency general meeting of Brierley Hill Swimming Club.
Volunteers say they had no alternative because of lost sessions at the pool in Pear Tree Lane, Coseley.
The club has been offered alternative pool times at Dudley Leisure Centre but treasurer Phil Steven said today it would be “unfair” to ask members, most of whom are children aged under 10, to swim at 7am in the morning or 9pm at night.
Father-of-two Mr Steven, a 56-year-old accountant, said: “We just could not accept the pool time offered on a Monday and Tuesday. We were offered 9pm to 10.45pm on Mondays and 7am to 8am on Tuesdays.
“The members wouldn’t swim those hours, it’s unfair on the children. It’s almost child cruelty, asking them to swim those times. Some of the children are that enthusiastic they would do it, but we just couldn’t justify asking them to.”
The club, established in 1963 and a registered charity providing free swimming for children from deprived areas, survived the closure of Brierley Hill baths in 2005 but the loss of swimming at Coseley is the final straw. It will officially close on July 24. Coseley baths will close next month, with council chiefs refusing to buckle to demands of campaigners to stump up the cash to repair the building. -- 15 th JULY - Expresso and Stir, http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/07/15/swim-club-to-shut-as-pool-fight-lost/
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