Council hides houses behind GLL in Hydro hoopla

Turns out that GLL discussed the idea of turning the Health Hydro at Milton Road into flats with Swindon Borough Council before announcing it.

SBC suggested they float the idea and see how it's received while GLL received the wrath, SBC hurried a minimum safe distance away from the explosion.

They clearly didn't reckon on GLL being so narked at the bad publicity, they'd just freely talk about how it came about.

Whoops, looks like SBC's been dropped heavily in the deep end (of the main pool of course).

Heritage sinks in Swindon's deep end

No-one should be that surprised at GLL's proposals for the wholesale ripping-out of the Health Hydro, especially considering their recent past performance (such as the closure of the 2nd pool at Milton Road, the debacle at The Link over the climbing wall and the ejection of the playgroup at the same centre).

If you look beyond the shouty headline, it remains to be seen if this proposal would ever get anywhere, especially inside a listed building.

In a smaller heritage story, the reaction from the Civic Voice was predictably moaning in 'we're in a paddy because we weren't just given the building because that's what we expect'-style. Makes you wonder what they've been doing about it since 2012.

In the same way that Civic Voice complained about the authorised part demolition of the Technical College building in Victoria Road and admitted that they had failed to spot the detail of it in the planning application.

The Swindon Civic Voice is a very long way from it's earlier incarnation when it use to formally and carefully critique developer plans, and was effective.

Now Civic Voice just seems to shout as often and as loud as it can like a child having a paddy.

Health Hydro Puts Swimmers In The Deep End

It's no real surprise GLL have decided to close the small pool at Swindon's Health Hydro due to the cost of repairing it.

But when GLL took over the Health Hydro in 2014, it would no-doubt have know the condition of the Health Hydro, including the small pool, so it's mystifying that just 2 years after taking over it's now having to close part of the building.

As the building is Grade II Listed, we can only hope that GLL don't find the rest of the building over the remaining 23 years of the lease prohibitively expensive to maintain, and shut other bits of it. The contract only binds them to keeping the Health Hydro open for five years after taking over.

Do they intend to invest at Milton Road for the long term, or are they simply seeing out the five years before handing back the keys?Did they know what they were signing a contract for?