I think it's interesting how it now appears to be a foregone conclusion that the pools should be demolished. Rather than 'discuss what's on the table", many people probably wonder whether that should really be the only dish on the menu.

Another aspect that is at best receiving insufficient attention (and at worst being rather arrogantly dismissed) from Lewisham and your camp is that almost irrespective of the architectural merits of the existing structure, people simply don't trust the council to deliver a new pool that will function properly, open on time and to budget - and look better. They are rightly suspicious that rather than the best modern design by a talented architect we will get some anodyne box that looks dreadful after ten years.

Some people are further able to differentiate between the worth of a relatively undistinguished piece of Victorian architecture and the contribution of the building to the streetscape.

Don't underestimate people's distrust of the council, either to deliver something genuinely better, or to go about the process in an transparent, accountable and honest manner.

After all, the pool wouldn't be closed in the first place if they'd looked after it properly. As a result we now have this farce of paying for a replacement. Something stinks and it isn't just the unwashed of Forest Hill.