Town unites to save leisure centre

8:59am Tuesday 28th November 2006

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CRICKLADE Leisure Centre could be saved by the community, say campaigners.

Yesterday hundreds of protesters gathered outside the facility, which is under threat of closure, to show North Wiltshire District Council they are going to fight to keep it open.

They say with no sporting facilities children in Cricklade will be at greater risk of developing associated health problems such as obesity and diabetes.

Around 400 noisy campaigners, including hordes of children wrapped up against the cold, stood defiantly outside the sports centre waving placards in the air and chanting "save our centre" over and over to get their message heard.

Protest leader Gary Walker, who was surprised to see so many people, says the announcement has been on the cards for some time.

"North Wilts Leisure have been running the centre down for the last two years so this wasn't really a huge shock," he said.

"I'm happy to say there's no real anger about the situation.

In fact this is our chance to take control.

"The best solution is for the community to take it over.

"Day to day it wouldn't change.

"We would have a committee with three or four people to oversee the running of the centre and to manage the budget.

"The people on the committee would be professional managers.

"It worked well 20 years ago and it could work well again."

He added: "Over 20,000 people use this centre out of a population of not more than 40,000. It is at the heart of the town."

Lynne Porter, 45, of North Wall, who has two children, Cameron Pryde, 12, and Kirsten Pryde, eight, says the centre must be saved.

"The centre is extremely well used, but I suppose it's not children and mums who bring in a lot of cash for private companies," she said.

"When there are swimming lessons going on the place is so busy and it would be awful if we lost the facility. This needs to be a real community focused facility. In recent years we have lost the park and we have lost the children's holiday club.

"What we need is for those things to be run again which would attract even more people."

Kirsten, who was waving a "Save the Centre" placard, said: "I love the centre and I would be very sad if it closed down. I hope someone stops it from happening."

Helen McLean, a nurse of Pittsfield, says children in Cricklade need somewhere to exercise.

The 46-year-old who has two children, Zoe, 12, and Bethany, eight, said: "With rising numbers of children with obesity and type two diabetes we must encourage our children to exercise and this centre can do that.

"What message is being sent out if there is no facility in Cricklade?"

Bethany said: "I really like coming here to swim and to see all my friends.

"I would like to get a big mob of children and say Don't close our centre' until someone says they will save it."

Sally Genet, 39, of North Wall, who has two children, Richard, six, and Jonathan, four, said: "We use the centre for swimming lessons and cycle here which is something we could not do if our nearest pool was in a different town."

Simon Payne, 24, of Parsonage Farm, says sports teams in the town would have nowhere to train if the centre was closed.

"We need somewhere to go and that's why the centre needs to stay open," he said.

Steve Dye, who runs the Cricklade Junior Football Club agreed.

"We use the centre for training and would take more slots if we could get them," he said.

"I think if the centre was closed down then ultimately the football teams would have to stop.

"Ninety per cent of our 120 players are from Cricklade and there's no way they would all be able to get to training facilities in Cirencester or Swindon."