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West Reservoir in Stoke Newington has been a beloved north London swimming spot for the last 20 years. And Hackney Council has been hard at work this year giving the area around it a much-needed refresh.
The council has introduced a new cafe and reception area, a grassy patch for relaxing and ‘expanded open water swimming opportunities’ to the reservoir. Those improvements were all finished three months ago, but another part of the plans was a new pedestrian path around the water. After delays, the path around the east bank of the reservoir opened to the public for the first time on Wednesday September 9.
The opening of the path had to be pushed back in order to allow the new landscaping time to establish. To do that it needed rain which, as we all know, was sparse for most of June, July and August.
A council spokesperson said: ‘We are pleased that the new pathway and bridge at the West Reservoir opened on 9 September, increasing access to more of the reservoir. West Reservoir is one of the most significant leisure and natural resources in inner London and we are proud to have upgraded this much-loved facility to be more inclusive, accessible and environmentally friendly.’
There is some controversy around the new path, though, as reported in Hackney Citizen. Local residents in Woodberry Down have complained that a solid fence erected as part of the path now blocks the view from the public side of the café. They also take issue with the fact that the beach where paying swimmers sit is now closed to everyone else. Non-swimmers previously had free access to the area, and the fence wasn’t mentioned in the public consultation for the planning application.
In a letter to the council, residents wrote: ‘Before the development of the West Reservoir Improvement Project, everybody was free to sit in the café, relax and observe the reservoir, boats and swimmers. Now, it is a place of segregation where non-swimmers are treated as “outsiders” who are excluded from sharing what should be common spaces. The café is now segregated and non-swimmers have to sit away from their friends.’
Ian Holland, the council’s assistant director of parks, leisure and green spaces, responded by stating: ‘For safety reasons, we’re significantly increasing footfall to that site. We need to restrict access to the activity area. We just can’t have hundreds of members of the public walking into the activity space.
‘The swimmers particularly are concerned about people looking at them and watching them as they get in the water, which I can understand, which is us trying to come up with a way of obstructing the view slightly, whilst giving members of the public access to the water as well.’
The fencing may not stick around. The council said it has met with members of the Woodberry Down Community Organisation, taken their feedback on board and hopes to ‘make changes to these concerns soon’. The change would be subject to planning approval.
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