Campaigners have called for a “segregating” black fence to come down at West Reservoir, Woodberry Down, which splits the café and beach between paying swimmers and the public.
Swim Peeps, whose West Reservoir swimming group has 1,800 members, launched a campaign on 11 October calling for the council to remove the “segregation”. The campaign was brought to the council a week later.
Swim Peeps complained the division shuts out friends who want to socialise with the group by the water-side but not swim.
“We’re always social first, swim second,” said Saxon Norgard, creator of the swim group. He said segregating the water-side facilities was “counterintuitive” to helping community mental health.
Malcolm Alexander, member of the local environmental activist group New River Renewal (NRR), called the division an “absurd and ugly segregation” of the local community in a letter to Mayor Zoe Garbett on 21 August. They have since received only “acknowledgement, acknowledgement, acknowledgement”, without action from the council.
Alexander called it “a commercial project dividing the local community”. The NRR’s campaign will be put to the Hackney council again in a meeting this month.
A council spokesperson said: “The cafe building being split into two sections was the best way to balance” the privacy of swimmers and “accessibility” to the public.
The division was not part of the council’s 2023 public consultation on planned improvements to the landscape and swim centre, which drew 794 responses.
Of these responses, just 21 raised privacy concerns about swimmers being overlooked as they entered the water.
A community survey conducted by Woodberry Down Community Organisation found 93% of residents opposed the division.
Stella is an MA Journalism student at City St George's University. She has written for Palatinate (Durham University), EdFringe Review, and p.ublished. She also trained at The Observer Journalism School.