--
Posted by nick storer to swanage view
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Community Centre?
Swanage Multi-functional Centre.It seems to me they have already decided what is going to happen, so what is the point of further questionnaires? In view of the fact that I don’t think anyone is listening, I’m posting here.Everyone says we can’t afford a pool. So what exactly would be the on cost to this project of say a 30m pool, and what would the additional running cost be exactly???Wherever the centre is built, if this watered down jack-of-all-trades project goes ahead please leave enough space so squash courts, a pool, tennis courts, five aside pitches etc can be added by innovative folk at a later date.I’m not in favour of education and training in the centre, the money would be better spent funding internet based home learning. The business services bit is obviously covering up for the fact that Swanage needs more real business and office units on the Industrial Estate. Hopefully the Council will let Phil Wood run the café in the style of the Sports Bar in Wareham, but hopefully without the discount on food given to council members of staff (50% off I’m told). This is turning into another community hall for old people. If we can’t afford it, use some of the land to build flats to finance something more visionary. We should be pursuing excellence here not just doing the minimum to placate the campaigners, families and tourists who have been let down so badly for so many years.
--
Posted by nick storer to swanage view at 7/13/2005 01:46:13 PM
--
Posted by nick storer to swanage view
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
I could not believe some of the comments at the exhibition. Some (wrinklies I presume)had written such negative comments like "a swimming pool would bankrupt the Town", "we already have the sea", "it must be completely self supporting and not effect the rates" I'd keep the second home owners and send the people who retired down here back where they came from. Only the bitter twisted ones that is.
This is very worrying, if Councillors think they are going to lose votes by supporting a proper sports facility then it will never happen :-(
Rowland Hughes says:
Here are my comments dropped in at the "suggestion" box at the Tourist Information Centre:
During my chairmanship of the Residents Association, I attended meetings and contributed on a regular basis from 1997 and the days of the "Healthy Living" Centre initiative, through to the “Sports (exclusively)" Centre initiatives and into the current, and eminently more sensible, “Multi-Function" Centre initiative.
As soon as something appeared to be getting somewhere the government moved the goalposts, Sport England changed the funding criteria, lowered Swanage’s grant allowance from 90% to 65% at the drop of a hat etc. etc. The initiatives failed and I lost heart, as had many before me and probably quite a few since.
It is incredibly gratifying to see that not all are made of such weak ingredients as myself and many thanks and much admiration to Ann Faulkner for championing the cause through thick and thin. I only hope that her efforts are rewarded and that the current initiative progresses further than display boards on a wall in the Tourist Information Centre.
I enclose a couple of letters sent to the useless Pat Bailey, PDC’s so-called Sports Co-ordinator. These letters show the concerns and wishes of the time. Some of these concerns have since evaporated, as the powers that be have changed the designation to “Multi-Function” instead of their previous irrational insistences that it be a “Sports only” Centre.
My own personal comment would be, now that the “Sports only” element has been dropped – why not build additional facilities at the Swanage Bay View Caravan site? This centre belongs to the Town Council (us), it has recently been pleasantly upgraded, and it already includes many facilities – most importantly a swimming pool. Even though this is small, it is still better than no pool. Surely building on to this would attract more visitors and custom for the existing facilities, and would improve the existing Caravan Park. It’s also not in the flood plain, by a long way.
The two contenders displayed at the TIC this week both have real disadvantages:
The Middle School is used by children most days and its’ future is uncertain thanks to DCCs inability to decide on its’ education policies, it doesn’t have car parking, and many more difficulties.
The Football Club looked good, but has a history of problems. If it goes ahead on this site, it will probably become nothing more than a glorified football club after the dust has settled. Other than a football field and parkland the football club site has no other current onsite facilities.
So why not the Caravan Park? It has a swimming pool, bar, restaurant and areas that can be used for multi-functional purposes already, good car parking, and being a site with mobile homes, if planning permission is granted, then it is ideal, as a few mobile homes can be re-sited – following agreement of course – and the facilities can be built. Very importantly, money can also be saved and used for the additional facilities. I've heard all the crazy arguments from Government that it must be "new-build" to qualify for funding, but I'm sure there is a way around this, in that the new facilities will be "new build". They'll just be attached to an older existing building, and this would surely be the case with any submission for siting the centre at the Middle School.
There are probably good reasons, but I don’t understand why this publicly owned facility is at least listed as a non-starter and reasons given for this status. It isn’t even being considered at the TIC consultation.
If the middle school site becomes available, what an opportunity for a centre for sports and the arts -with an hotel, conference centre, theatre/concert hall. Don't be afraid of a Public/Private Finance Initiative to achieve far more than anyone thought possible. Perhaps even the Mowlem could "move".
Why are individual Swanage Councillors so keen to get the thing at the Caravan Park? Do they have a personal interest in selling the caravans or something?
not sure about that but we ate at the new restaurant and the view was great. The food too was pretty good. However with a staff to customer ratio of nearly 1:1 it must be loosing a fortune?
THIS BUNCH OF COUNCILLORS HAVE NO INTENTION OF DOING ANYTHING BUT GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS NEVER ANY ACTION SHAME ON YOU ALL YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE JOKE
Post a Comment