In recent years, summer brings chaos at the Lido: we’ve all heard of parking and traffic nightmares, litter strewn all over, irresponsible barbecues, antisocial behaviour, people endangering themselves by going into the water, and comically ill-informed features in newspapers and on social media about ‘London’s secret beach’… but what is it actually like to live near the Lido?
In the first of a series from the Ruislip Residents’ Association this summer, today we have an article from a resident and over the next few weeks we will be examining what goes on around the Lido, what the parking and traffic problems are, who is doing what about them, what the future was supposed to hold, and what it might be.
With thanks to the Ruislip Lido Residents Group, buckle up and prepare to ghast your flabber.
My Life on the Lido’s Edge
I’ve lived beside Ruislip Lido since 1999. I imagine many reading this will have lived in Ruislip as long if not longer, but this is some background to my involvement in trying to alleviate the problems the Lido causes local residents.
There are of course always problems associated with a popular attraction that impact those who live nearby. But when I moved here it was relatively few days each year – a handful of hot Sundays and bank holidays. A bit of a nuisance but didn’t dramatically affect our quality of daily life.
The Great 2010 Lido “Improvement” Fiasco
In 2010 the then Leader of the Council Ray Puddifoot announced plans to develop the Lido. He wanted to bring back boating and swimming, put in new facilities including a new woodland centre, changing rooms and cafe, and build a large new car park to accommodate the planned increase in visitor numbers.
These proposals were strongly opposed by the local residents and other groups such as the Friends of Ruislip Lido (now disbanded). There were ecological concerns, concerns more parking would lead to increased traffic, and that increased facilities and visitor numbers would create more problems for the locals.
The swimming and boating has not happened (and I believe there are no plans to currently. Though of course many swim unofficially and unsafely). The overflow car park and other development did, including much publicity. Unfortunately when the main car park was reconfigured to allow for charging (which had been promised during the planning application would not happen) many spaces were lost. So the net gain from the new car park is only approximately 30 more spaces for visitors than there was in 2010.
The cost, in both monetary terms and blight, has been huge.
Promises, Promises, and a Pile of Rubbish
All the predictions residents made about the negative impact have come true. More and more visitors come, causing traffic and parking chaos. The private property of residents is routinely abused with visitors thinking nothing of parking in driveways, throwing their litter everywhere, and even unbelievably using gardens and driveways as picnic areas and toilets!
Instead of just a few summer weekends its now a daily problem for six months of the year.
The anti-social behaviour, especially late at night and the small hours, has become intolerable.
It is probably fair to say that not all of this is at the door of Hillingdon Council, the rise of social media also played its part. However what IS at the door of the Council is what they did – and then what they failed to do.
When Cllr Ian Edwards took over as Leader, he held a meeting at the Lido on 14 July 2021 where he publicly acknowledged that the level of problems the Lido had created was unacceptable, and committed to tackling them.
Among the measures discussed was extending the parking management, which has been done. He told us that various other solutions were being looked at including charging non-Hillingdon residents an entry fee, or removing the beach area. He committed to increasing the security – especially at night.
The Council’s Masterclass in Inaction
Since then, little to nothing has been done, and certainly nothing has improved. We were told these suggestions had been dropped as unviable, but we’ve been refused access to the reports and studies that led to this conclusion. We can only wonder what they are hiding … Do these reports not back up what the Council are saying, or did the reports never even exist? All of our Freedom of Information requests on this issue have been refused.
The day to day life for residents continues to get worse. The parking and traffic enforcement, which greatly helps when its in place, isn’t in place enough. Parking is impossible on weekday summer evenings. There is no security, and no one to deal with night time ASB. The massive increase in parking costs in the car parks encourages visitors to try their luck in the permit zone or increasingly the private spaces of residents.
The bulk of the cost of enforcement and the endless cleaning up is borne by the taxpayers of Hillingdon. Not only do we pay for it, but many of us avoid it on busy days.
For years, the local residents have been concerned about what would happen if emergency vehicles needed access on a hot day. Well, we saw a couple of weeks ago what would happen. Utter chaos.
Despite over 5000 visitors arriving on a busy day, Hillingdon Council has no risk assessment specific to the Lido. No evacuation plan. The Lido staff leave at 4pm, after that there is no-one to deal with any kind of incident or emergency.
Residents are abused and threatened for protecting their property, and feel unsafe and trapped in their homes.
When Home Becomes a Hellhole
This is not good enough.
Unfortunately all too often when this subject is discussed, someone will say “well if you hate it so much, why don’t you just move?”
But why should we? Why should we be forced from the homes where we have lived for decades, by a situation that should never have been allowed to deteriorate to this point?
Ruislip is a beautiful area, a great place to live, and its past time Hillingdon Council made good its promises to tackle the problems the Lido causes. Not only for the community who live close by, but for the wider area.
At a time when the borough is in financial difficulties, and needed and loved facilities are being closed (the Rural Activities Garden Centre among others), it seems extraordinary – perhaps even negligent – that the Council is ignoring the potential income source it has here.
Charging non-Hillingdon residents could cut down visitor numbers on the worst days. It could pay for the enforcement and security. And maybe even have a surplus that could be used elsewhere.
Or remove the beach and remove the problem, as the Council itself suggested in 2021. Which would save us (and the emergency services!) a huge amount of money.
But it is no longer acceptable for the Council to do nothing while residents suffer, and to refuse to explore an income source while cutting back valuable services needed by the most vulnerable in our community.
Carolyn Towner
(Ruislip Lido Residents Group)
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