4:30pm Wednesday 18th April 2007
By Carl Brown
A GUARDIAN investigation has uncovered the unsanitary state of Leyton Leisure Lagoon's sauna and steam room, revealing poor levels of hygiene and badly-maintained facilities.
Following complaints to the Guardian, we visited the centre in Leyton High Road, and discovered a number of problems.
l The steam room was not working and there was an hour's wait for the sauna.
l Two out of three mother and baby changing rooms were closed because of a leaking roof, while other changing cubicles had dirty walls, graffiti, missing bench slabs and no locks on the doors.
l Customers were having to sweep puddles of water off the floor leading into the sauna and the sauna lighting was not working, meaning customers were forced to sit in the dark.
Tatyana Poliakova, 52, of Ainslie Wood Gardens, Chingford, is one disgruntled customer who said that she complained to a duty manager about the facilities last month.
She said that the sauna was not working during her visit and the floor of the steam room was dirty.
There was an "unpleasant, pongy smell" in the steam room and an unsafe pipe blowing steam into people's faces.
She also said that the steam was not giving off enough heat and some of the women were having to stand up because there was not enough seating.
"Was my visit enjoyable and relaxed? Nothing of the kind," she said.
"It was disappointing and spoilt my evening.
"There are a number of concerns but at the moment, my greatest concerns are poor management and hygiene.
"I know a lot of people are dissatisfied but often they don't complain. Many of the people who use the Leisure Lagoon do not speak English as a first language and probably do not know how to go about complaining."
Ms Poliakova said she was among a group of women who left their contact details with a duty manager on March 16, on the understanding they would be contacted.
A Greenwich Limited Leisure (GLL) spokesman said that there was no record of the complaint.
LEYTON Leisure Lagoon's facilities are maintained by GLL on behalf of the council.
A GLL spokesman failed to answer dozens of questions about the current state of the centre's facilities.
He also did not answer a question about how many customer comments forms have been completed and formal complaints made about the facilities.
He said: "We take all complaints from the public very seriously and do our utmost to ensure all users of our centres enjoy their visit in a clean and safe environment.
"We would like to thank the Guardian for bringing these concerns to our attention and will be investigating these complaints as part of our ongoing commitment to raising standards throughout all our centres."
LEYTON Leisure Lagoon's fitness centre needs to shape up, writes Shyvonne Thomas I went there last Thursday morning to check on Tatyana Poliakova's complaints, and what I found was even worse.
As the steam room was not working due to technical difficulties', the wait to get in to use the sauna was up to an hour.
One staff member said: "There is no electricity going through to the steam room, so we've had to close it."
Two of the three mother and baby changing rooms were closed due to a leak from the roof.
Other cubicles were small and dark, so that they posed problems for parents displaced from their special facilities.
Some cubicles had graffiti, missing bench slabs, no hooks to hang bags and coats or no locks on the doors.
The only group changing room was cold, with missing ceiling panels, and some of the insulating material was hanging out.
Posted on the walls near the pool entrance was the centre's Pledge to You: "Floors will be clean and free from dirt and spillages... Walls will be clean and free from graffiti."
There was graffiti in some cubicles and the walls had dirt towards the bottom and edges of the wall. The room leading in to the sauna had puddles of water on the floor and customers were sweeping it into the drains using a water-wiper.
One said: "Staff don't come often enough to sweep away the water, so we do it. There are no drain pipes in the sauna room either, so the room gets filled with water."
A maximum of five or six people can fit in the sauna room, despite staff claiming that it is designed for ten.
There are two levels of seating, with the higher level too hot to sit on, so most customers sit at the lower level.
The sauna had no lighting. Customers were sitting in the near dark. Although the steam room was closed, I was able to pop in. It had a mouldy smell and was quite dirty.
I am fairly small and could not see in the mirrors properly, so they are not disabled-friendly.
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