- Let's not forget A NEW SPORTS HALL FOR SWANAGE??? From PLANNING PURBECK'S FUTURE: From the 19th January PDC report on Council Core Strategy - Key Issues Item 2.9: In Swanage there is opportunity to investigate how a new sports hall could be provided for the benefit of residents.' ----------------------------------- What do Swanageview's bloggers feel about the need for this, in light of all of the other priorities for the town? What facilities would you want to see it have? 8:14 PM Anonymous said... Same as the schools situation really, it would be good to have one local. Eeeeeechhh 1:38 AM Anonymous said... PDC have plans to give us one - a Sports Centre that is! Now show your knowledge, show that you have engaged with the outside world and tell me how I know it - it's available to the public - if you can be bothered to find it. It would be only polite to give us the link. Thank you. 1:40 AM Anonymous said... Funding-It seems that there is pots of money available if it fits a certain criterior. So let find a pot that fits education and a sports centre. There is lottery funding available, similar to the Keystone Project funding. The Purbeck Heritage Committee and community partners are pleased to have been awarded £1.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to promote and celebrate the nature and culture of Purbeck's landscapes. We want the programme to be as flexible as possible, and would therefore welcome applications either to modernise or enhance sporting facilities, or provide revenue funding for any aspect of sports development, or a combination of the two. The total funding available is £10 million of National Lottery money. Sport England. The overall aim of this investment programme is to develop projects that encourage people living in rural communities to participate and / or sustain their participation in sport, and help those with talent fulfil their potential. We can do this ! 1:47 AM Anonymous said... We so need this. But is has been discussed for 30 years. Remember the exhibition at the TIC about 5 years ago. The sites were identified and the builders seemed ready to start. What happened? 8:41 AM All this talk about a Sports Centre for Swanage then a year on at the last STC meeting it seemed to have been forgotten about again. Thanks Mike for bringing it to the attention of the planning officer (Steve Dring). So a secondary school and a new sports hub, it would be good to achieve some progress with both in 2011 !
- 3:15 PM
Friday, December 31, 2010
New Sports Hall
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A town of 10,000 would find it difficult to sustain the ongoing operating costs of a leisure centre, particularly if aquatic activities were included. Add to that the fact that Swanage has a large number of OAPs who presumably would receive concessions of some sort, and the problem deepens.
My suggestion would be for Mike to ask that a committee be established to consult with other towns of similar size and location (North Walsham is one) that has built such a site in the past ten years, to study the ongoing running costs.
In the meantime (these things take years) I would suggest the issue of PDC subsidies for transport and admissions costs to use the sports centre at Purbeck School be studied as a means of making it affordable for south Purbeck folk to use an already existing facility.
One small step at a time...
One small step at a time...!!
A few years ago many steps and PDC employees time were taken to progress towards a Sports Club for Swanage.
A sports committee was formed-what happened and does the file still exist?
Why are the people of Swanage being deprived of amenities and expected to drive to Wareham.
Sports and keeping fit is a priority.
One day Swanage will wake up and understand that it is far, far down on the list of priorities for PDC and DCC. Wareham has been selected as their 'golden child' based purely upon the fluke of geographical location and not population demographics.
Aren't those assumptions obvious? How much more evidence does Swanage need to realise that these are facts, and not opinions?
Certainly keeping fit IS a priority. Providing a sports centre will not ensure this, however.
I suppose one can walk the hills and coastal paths for free, go for a paddle in the Vista paddling pool for a small charge, and jog up and down Park Road for a bit of free exercise....
That is the best option PDC/DCC will give us....
Swanage had scope for a sports centre - at the Vista at Swanage Bay View, which was owned BY Swanage.
Those who frequent STC meetings will remember that Dave Taylor proposed a fitness centre there, and the TC went along with it, ploughing 20k into it.
To no avail. DT resigned, and the then Town Clerk (clearly a proponent of personal fitness, judging by his cuddliness (sic)), padlocked the room and flogged the lot off to Darwin who do not give a stuff for Swanage unless it improves the bottom line figure (how is the 30k rent income a year working out for our coffers, Mike?). To this day, there is no fitness suite there, even for the poor owners who continue to pay for this non-existent amentity.
My point? STC cannot organise a p-up in a brewery, so the thought that Swanage will ever have a publicly financed fitness/health centre are non-existent. I understand the Grand has a small facility open to the great unwashed for money.
Purbeck School has great facilities health centre and swimming facilities and programmes. I suggest we use those. After all, our kiddies will be up there, so why shouldn't we? Wareham is now the home of all of Swanage's amenities. Swanage is nothing but a bedroom suburb of Wareham. Get over it. Get with the programme. Nout will change.
Some years ago PDC employed someone on a fixed term contract to apply for funding for a Swanage sports centre. After months of talking to the various sports organisations the form was filled in but then the end of the fixed term contract was reached and the individual concerned went on their way leaving the application un-submitted. By the time it was discovered in the files the fund had been closed and all the work was in vain.
By the way, the funding for the Purbeck Sports Centre was obtained on the premise that it was a facility for Swanage, Bovvie, Upton and just about everywhere else for miles. Something of a fiction.
..By the way, the funding for the Purbeck Sports Centre was obtained on the premise that it was a facility for Swanage, Bovvie, Upton and just about everywhere else for miles. Something of a fiction.'
Then let's create a partnership between PDC, the Sports Centre and Wilts and Dorset to create a season discount pass for those poor yet fitness-conscious souls from Swanage, Bovvie and Wareham's other hinterlands, so that they CAN actually use the facility without entering the poor house.
Why not just give planning permission to someone to build posh houses on the Old Grammar School site in exchange for a 25m pool, sports hall and some squash courts. If it costs £100,000 a year to run, so be it. £10 each. Simples.
And remember STC own enough of that land to donate the brown field site to build it and associated car park on already.
I never understand why the sports facilites at the Middle School are not used for the community. The field is a valuable asset and unused for a huge amount of time, after school, during the holidays. Also evening classes ?? we should be making better use of what is already there.
There are a host of health and safety, and especially child protection, issues involved when school premises are made open to the public. It is not as simple as opening a door. Not by a long shot.
Purbeck's facility was designed, and adapted, to take care of these issues, and even then there have been numerous changes over the past decade to those facilities and their access.
It would be fab to have our own sports centre outside the control of PDC. What a coup d'état.
It will never happen without PDC. Never. PDC seems disinclined to pursue it. Ergo it will not happen.
PDC seems fixated on the Worgret area as the central hub for all major investment for growth. It is the place where all transport from the south (Swanage) and west (Bovington/Wool) meet. All middle school kids will be shipped there. Swanage railway will be linked to the main line there. I am sure the planners at PDC are upset that a superstore there was turned down, and I expect that issue will be revisited in a few years' time, once the school transition is complete.
In the meantime, there will be no coup; Swanage will not have a sports centre. It will not happen.
To think there will be is simply delusional.
Oh, how I wish that I could know the future with such certainty!
There's been no news since early Oct, but if Education Swanage get the Secondary School off the ground, then we could get a Sports Centre attached to that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12106896
The situation a couple of years ago was that there were two sites that were probable and a few more to which there were various disadvantages. It came down to the Middle School or one of the fields close to the old grammar school. The issue was kicked into the long grass while DCC decided what to do with the schools. At the tome the then mayor favoured a north Swanage site while the Herston site was preferred by those who thought the majority of users were likely to live closer to Middle School.
Why do we bother?
"It came down to the Middle School or one of the fields close to the old grammar school"
It's on-going and the fields close to the Grammar School have been removed,the Grammar school is a possibility if education swanage fail. A ce moment la, the best bet is what has suddenly become known as Herston Fields - it was Ginnys in my day - flat and featureless - and now that the flooding is being dealt with, possibly the best choice
I do not recall it being the fields on the west of Northbrook Road or the far end of the grammar school site that were suggested. My recollection, which could well be wrong, is that it was intended to be adjacent to the football club. No doubt there are town partnership minutes on the town council web site that have more detail. The intention with the middle school site was to build on the patch of land west of the school drive, possibly calling for the drive to be moved over a little. Since the site is a good deal larger than St Marks is likely to need sequestering part of it for a sports centre should not be a problem. Both middle school and what could be termed greater Day's Park are publicly owned land so there is no question of having to negotiate with a private land owner with either.
I do not recall it being the fields on the west of Northbrook Road or the far end of the grammar school site that were suggested. My recollection, which could well be wrong, is that it was intended to be adjacent to the football club. No doubt there are town partnership minutes on the town council web site that have more detail. The intention with the middle school site was to build on the patch of land west of the school drive, possibly calling for the drive to be moved over a little. Since the site is a good deal larger than St Marks is likely to need sequestering part of it for a sports centre should not be a problem. Both middle school and what could be termed greater Day's Park are publicly owned land so there is no question of having to negotiate with a private land owner with either.
Why not just give planning permission to someone to build posh houses on the Old Grammar School site in exchange for a 25m pool, sports hall and some squash courts. If it costs £100,000 a year to run, so be it. £10 each. Simples.
And permission for a school too would be fantastic, then this amenity could be shared in a similar way as Purbeck Sports Centre/Purbeck School. The elderly need to keep fit too.
It would be great to see this happen. Let 2011 be a positive year for Swanage !!
Right.
Raise it at the next meeting of STC.
Ask Gary Suttle to get behind it.
Then wait..............
Yes that makes sense! It was Gary along with 1 other PDC councillor who did not vote in support of extra funding to expand Purbeck Sports Centre gym facility. Gary particularly asked for his name to be recorded.
Do we know how much was spent on the most recent machines and build for this at Purbeck. Is someone able to enlighten?
How many PDCouncillors represent Swanage. Let's take a look on the DforU website.
We dont need a sports centre , nor do we need schools , dont need showers along the beach , we dont want pierhead to be built , we dont need a tip to dump our rubbish , we dont want to be connected by rail to wareham , dont need a hospital
But what we do need are more luxury flats and second homes , just to kill the town off a bit more.
RIP SWANAGE.
One of the depressing things about being old is that the same arguments come round again and again. A secondary school for Swanage raised in the 1970's/1990's and again in 2009 -20011. The community of Swanage trying to uphold the wishes of James Day for all his land to be used for the benefit of Swanage. A sports Centre. It would be great if finally generations of hard toil could come to fruition. Countless community and local councillors time has been spent on this over the years, if it isn't achieved what a waste ! keep at it people.
Actually come to think of it we do need the rail line connected , so those second home owners from London could travel by train to their penthouse flats.
Rail link for second home owners? Of course they wouldn't use it. Why would anyone want to change at Wareham from South West Trains 1st class to some (relatively) dilapidated carriage to Swanage (apologies to Swanage Railway), then carry the Waitrose groceries up the hill? Far better to travel in the relative comfort of the Merc like I do. Or do I? Does it really matter?
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