The decision of the Mayor this evening was to push ahead with consultation on the existing options 2 and 3. Option 1 will no longer be considered.

Both remaining options preserve the frontage of the pool but without further work option 2 will result in no pool before 2015, and possibly not beyond that. Option 3 will almost certainly speed up the demise of Forest Hill as a town centre by moving the pool to a back street in Sydenham. Option 3 is not a viable site for a pool, so close to the refurbished swimming pool at Crystal Palace and will do nothing to attract people to the town centre. There will also be considerable planning problems with building high rise residential close to the houses in Derby Hill Crescent and on a site designated for leisure. The mayor was also remarkably dismissive of an art centre in Louise House due to problems with disabled access, although he did not quite rule this out.

I have no desire to see either options but these appear to be our choices - a pool in Sydenham and the slow demise of Forest Hill town centre, or a very uncertain possibility for a new pool on the existing site at least six years away.

Maybe I am just angry at the way the points raised by the Forest Hill Society (with the backing of all the organisations above) were so easily ignored. There should have been some attempt to make option 2 work from a planning and cost perspective. I would welcome other, possibly more positive views, about what the future holds for Forest Hill town centre and of swimming in this part of the borough.