Ipswich lido campaigner calls for decision over pool's future
The Grade II listed pool opened in 1938 and plans to restore it to its former glory have repeatedly stalled due to funding issues.Leisure firm, Fusion Lifestyle, had been tasked with operating the pool, but the council said Fusion "had been unable to provide assurances about their financial position".The authority said this raised concerns and brought "into question [Fusion's] ability to deliver the project, which received planning consent last year".
Ms Wainman says she stood in seven elections, including in the 2005 and 2010 general elections, with the pool her sole campaign point.She said she was still hopeful of the facility being redeveloped "if there's not endless delays". "I would like to see Ipswich Borough Council decide what they want to do and get on with it - either decide they are going to take this on themselves or ask someone else to manage the facility," she said. Ms Wainman said she believed the Lido should not be looked at as a facility that needed to be profitable, but was a public service that could improve people's health and take strain from the NHS.She said demolishing the pool and building houses on the site was projected to cost £1m over 20 years ago, so was not an inexpensive option.
Jack Abbott, Labour MP for Ipswich, said he was disappointed to hear the news but believed "it does not mark the end of the road"."I am pleased Ipswich Borough Council remains resolutely committed to finding a solution," he said.Watch: Footage of pool in 1960s revealed"I will continue to work with the council, the National Lottery and other partners to find a way forward that delivers this landmark project."Fusion Lifestyle said: "We are actively seeking to engage with the National Heritage Lottery Fund to find a solution that ensures local residents can still benefit from this much-anticipated restoration project."
Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
2 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Middle-income workers shoulder biggest tax burden increase
Middle-class workers are shouldering the biggest increase in the tax burden thanks to a stealth raid on thresholds, analysis suggests. The share of income tax paid by those who earn between £43,000 and £61,900 rose from 15.1pc to 17pc between 2021-22 and 2025-26, according to the TaxPayers' Alliance. During the same five-year period, the share of income tax paid by the top 1pc, those earning more than £201,000 a year, fell from 30.7pc to 26.6pc, the pressure group found. It comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces a £50bn black hole in the public finances and declining tax revenue as high-net-worth individuals look to move abroad. Analysis by the Financial Times this month revealed there had been a 40pc rise in directors moving abroad since Labour's autumn Budget. The Taxpayers' Alliance report found the proportion of total income tax receipts increased for every group except for the top 1pc of earners, thanks to a series of stealth taxes first introduced by the Conservatives. Income tax thresholds, including the £12,570 tax-free 'personal allowance', were frozen at the 2021 budget by then chancellor Rishi Sunak until 2025-26. A year later, his successor, Jeremy Hunt, extended the freeze until 2027-28. Despite promising not to raise taxes on working people, Sir Keir Starmer has not ruled out extending the freeze further to 2029-30. Keeping thresholds frozen means earners lose a larger share of their incomes to tax, as inflation pushes up wages in a process known as fiscal drag. The stealth raid means almost 2.9 million more people will pay the basic rate of income tax in 2025-26 than in 2021-22, while over 2.6 million more will pay the higher rate. Including other rates, almost 6 million more people are forecast to be paying income tax than in 2021-22. John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'This is the sad but inevitable result of successive governments' assortment of anti-affluence tax policies, which penalise aspiration and success. 'The UK is now trapped in a doom loop with the Chancellor desperately scrabbling around for more cash to fill the fiscal black hole and increasingly finding her only option is to come after the middle classes. 'Rachel Reeves needs to now show some humility and reverse the policies that have done so much to drive away high earners.' The respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research on Tuesday warned slowing economic growth, a weak jobs market and Labour's failure to commit to welfare reform meant Ms Reeves was on course to miss her borrowing targets by £41.2bn. When combined with the £9.9bn of headroom the Chancellor has committed to keeping, it means she is facing a £51.1bn deficit in the autumn that will either have to be solved by raising taxes or cutting spending. The study also underlined the importance for the Treasury's balance sheet to keep the highest earners in Britain. Despite the proportion of tax paid by the top 1pc of earners falling, the group still accounts for more than a quarter of all income tax receipts. Analysis of Companies House by the Financial Times found that 3,790 company directors had left Britain between October and July compared with 2,712 in the same period a year earlier. Significant names have included Richard Gnodde, Goldman Sachs ' most senior banker outside the US, Nassef Sawiris, the Aston Villa co-owner, and British property tycoon brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone. It comes after Labour launched a wide-ranging tax raid after coming to power last year. This included abolishing the non-dom status and tightening inheritance tax rules. Laura Suter, of AJ Bell, said: 'Government tax policy in the past few years has had the dual outcome of pushing some of the wealthiest to leave the UK and also landing more taxpayers with higher tax bills at the same time. 'Together, this means that an increasing proportion of the total tax bill of the country is paid by middle earners, rather than the super-rich. 'Looking ahead, any potential tax-raising measures that Rachel Reeves makes in her next Budget could exacerbate this dynamic further.' Trevor Williams, a former chief economist at Lloyds Bank, previously warned Britain was facing a millionaires' exodus. Mr Williams said: 'Since 2014, the number of resident millionaires in the UK dropped by 9pc compared with the world's 10 wealthiest countries' global average growth of more than 40pc. 'Over the same period, the US saw a 78pc increase in millionaires – the fastest wealth growth [among these countries].' The Treasury insisted that under its Plan for Change it would keep more money in people's pockets. A spokesman said: 'This government inherited the previous government's policy of frozen tax thresholds. At the Budget and the Spring Statement, the Chancellor announced that we would not extend that freeze. 'We are also protecting payslips for working people by keeping our promise to not raise the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, employee National Insurance or VAT. That's the Plan for Change – protecting people's incomes and putting money into people's pockets.'
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Calls for clarity over whether UK police can release suspects' ethnicity and immigration status
Yvette Cooper is facing demands for clarity over the information that police forces are permitted to release to the public after claims of a 'cover-up' by the authorities over the immigration status of men accused of raping a child. The Warwickshire police and crime commissioner, Philip Seccombe, called for fresh national guidance after police were accused by Reform UK of failing to confirm that two Afghan men being prosecuted for the alleged attack on a 12-year-old girl were asylum seekers. There is increasing pressure on prosecutors and the police to release details about the ethnicity and immigration status of people facing a criminal charge. Cooper, the home secretary, said on Tuesday that the guidance should change to permit police to release the ethnicity or immigration status of criminal suspects but added that she was waiting for a review to be concluded by the Law Commission. Seccombe said: 'Like all forces, Warwickshire police finds itself in a difficult position of trying to carefully balance the legal safeguards which protect the integrity of the judicial process, while maintaining public order and simultaneously ensuring that public confidence is maintained through transparency and honesty. 'Currently police forces are in an invidious position when deciding what can and should be disclosed in sensitive cases, given that the national guidance is silent on both the ethnicity and immigration status of suspects. 'It is very easy to criticise and suggest that the balance of disclosure hasn't been correct, but it is much harder to take these decisions on the ground.' The alleged rape, said to have happened on 22 July, has become the centre of a political storm after the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, on Monday amplified claims of a police cover-up. On Tuesday the leader of Reform-led Warwickshire county council said police were refusing to confirm details of the two suspects charged after the alleged attack in Nuneaton. George Finch, the youngest council leader in England, alleged within days that Ahmad Mulakhil and Mohammad Kabir – the two men charged in the case – were asylum seekers, but police forces do not routinely release the immigration status of suspects. In a letter to Cooper, Finch claimed the police risked 'disorder breaking out on the streets' of the county. Cooper said on Tuesday that 'we do want to see greater transparency' from police forces and she wanted national guidance to change in relation to the release of information about suspects. Mulakhil has been charged with two counts of rape, while Kabir has been charged with kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting of the rape of a girl aged under 13. Both men are in custody and due to appear at Warwick crown court on 26 August. Warwickshire county council's chief executive briefed Finch confidentially about the immigration status of the two men, according to a letter by the force's chief constable, Alex Franklin-Smith. Franklin-Smith said he confirmed to Finch last Thursday that this information was accurate but that 'we wouldn't be releasing immigration status at point of charge as we follow national guidance'. The police chief said he had asked the Home Office to confirm the full immigration status of the two men, given that Finch had released some details publicly. He added: 'I am confident that Warwickshire police has treated this investigation seriously from the outset, working tirelessly to identify, locate, arrest and charge those suspected of being responsible for this awful crime as quickly as possible.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'As the home secretary said yesterday, it has been widely reported that this case involves two Afghan individuals who are in the asylum system, some of which information has already been confirmed in open court. 'The home secretary has made clear that there is a strong public interest in maximum transparency wherever that is possible. 'That is why the Home Office and College of Policing are working together to strengthen and clarify the guidance around how and when information is released.'
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
John Hipkin obituary
My father, John Hipkin, who has died aged 90, was a teacher, councillor and former mayor of Cambridge. He brought intelligence, compassion and moral clarity to his four decades serving in local government, first as a Labour county councillor for Romsey ward in 1977; later, as a founding member of the SDP, he became a Lib Dem city councillor for Castle ward in 1992. He then served as an independent until his retirement from local politics in 2021. He was chair of the planning committee for a period and was mayor in 2005-06. Choosing 'peace' as the focus of his year, he was touched to be invited to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of those cities. John was also a co-founder of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967, and a founder, in 1960, and director for the Advisory Centre for Education, a service that gives advice to parents, carers, governors, local authorities and others on education law. He also did research at King's College Cambridge for the Public Schools Commission (1965-68), looking at the possibilities of integrating public schools into the maintained system of education. Born in Derby, John experienced adversity in his early life. His mother, Bunty (Elsie) Holloway, was forced to place John into the care of Dr Barnardo's when he was five; his two younger siblings, Anthony and Naomi, were adopted separately. His father, Jack Hipkin, a mounted police officer, was married, and during the second world war the relationship ended. After being placed with foster carers, education offered John a way forward. He passed the 11-plus, attended two grammar schools, first in Diss, Norfolk, and then in Surbiton, near Kingston upon Thames. He went to the London School of Economics, graduating with a first-class degree in history and economics. John became an English teacher and was determined to give back to the system that changed the direction of his life. In his first post at Senacre school in Maidstone, Kent, he developed his own English curriculum and wrote and produced a play, The Massacre of Peterloo (1968), which enlisted everyone in a collaborative production, with each student committed to a role. He later became head of English at Meridian school in Royston, Hertfordshire, and retired in 1995. He was reunited with his mother and his sister, who had changed her name from Naomi to Margaret, and his brother, Anthony, who died in 2014. Bunty had three other children, Hugh, David and Pamela. Rediscovering his siblings and their families was a healing experience. He is survived by his second wife, Marie-Louise (nee Holland), whom he married in 2004, and by his children Charlotte, Thomas, Joseph, Daniel and David, from his first marriage, to Bronwyn Dewey, which ended in divorce; me, from his relationship with Sylvie Chastagnol; and Imogen, from his marriage to Marie-Louise.
