The Leisure Centre project - have you responded to the council?

Time is running out to respond to the council on the Leisure Centre project consultation, the deadline is midnight on Monday 2 December.

Did you go to the open meeting organised by the Save the Rec group last Monday? If so, you will know that people who attended agreed that the best answer would be to tell the council that none of the presented options is acceptable, due to lack of information presented with them.

Whatever your opinion is, please let the council know:

Leisure Centre project online with link to online survey

Here are some recent reports:

Hampshire Chronicle: Winchester meeting hears leisure centre options withheld from public consultation
Winchester Today: Winchester RPLC plans “like GCSE project”
WINOL (video): Hundreds gather for 'Save the Rec' meeting
Abbotts Barton Community Group blog: The council's Leisure Centre consultation and the Save the Rec meeting

And of course the Save the Rec website.

Another green area to be built on - save our recreation ground!

As published by the Abbotts Barton Community Group:

Whether or not you are using the leisure centre and the recreation grounds at North Walls for sports, the plans of the Council to build a new centre on one of the North Walls recreation grounds should be looked at by all of us as they will affect most of us in many ways.

If you are not familiar yet with the Council's proposal please read the information provided via the Save The Rec website. There is also a link to the full Council proposal.

Most importantly: there is some chance that Councillor Keith Woods will bring his proposal to a vote at the council meeting on 6 November. If you want to write to councillors on this issue (the more the better), aim to do it before then.

On Friday (11 October) Radio Solent had a feature about the campaign in the Julian Clegg show, starting at 1:09. If you are interested, the show can be listened to for another five days.

The October edition of winchestertoday had a great editorial on the same subject:

By the way, the Save The Rec group are now also using Twitter and Facebook which for most of us are easier to follow than a website:

Twitter - Save The Rec
Facebook - Save The Rec

If you are concerned about the Council's plans please follow/like (or sign up with your email on their website) to show the group your support AND write to the Council!

Save The Rec and Save The Parks / the Council's plan for the Leisure Centre

As today's leading article in the Hampshire Chronicle confused our campaign with the newly set up Save The Rec group here are few items to help you along:

• The article itself: Anger growing over leisure centre plans at River Park in Winchester 
• The Save The Rec website is here: http://savetherec.weebly.com/ 
• Also later today there will be a meeting held by the Council: Meeting about future of River Park Leisure Centre. (Please note that you will have to register your interest and reserve a seat to take part in the meeting. This wasn't very clear from the press release. Apparently members of the Leisure Centre have been invited - however in our household we never got an invite despite my son having a swimming membership. This should really be an open meeting as the plans affect far more people than just those with a membership at the Leisure Centre.)

There are a number of concerns about the Council's plans:

Loss of open space
During the Save The Parks campaign a number of residents of Abbotts Barton have been told by city officers that the parkland in Abbotts Barton is not that important to keep intact as there is always North Walls Recreation Ground. Needless to say, we disagree with that completely: a) North Walls is not in view by houses in Abbotts Barton (important when you have children), and b) always very busy, you can't just go there and do a community event on the weekend without colliding with many other people and groups. And now a big part of it is supposed to be built on? If the councillors keep coming up with more ideas for the destruction of green spaces in Winchester, soon all of Winchester will have to make do with whatever little space is left at North Walls! Great prospect.

Yes, we do understand that the Leisure Centre can't go on for much longer in its current state and we also understand that it needs to cater for more people than just Winchester residents -  and we also love that it's close to us. But maybe there is another way, for example splitting it up into two, with possibly a swimming pool at Bar End and an update to what exists currently?

Traffic
Also a new improved Leisure Centre as per the current plans of the Council would create quite a lot more traffic into the dead end system of Gorden Road, right past a busy school, St. Bede's. This of course is troubling parents who want to make sure they and their children can walk to school safely. And of course it would also affect the people living along those roads.

Even if the traffic flow would be changed to a one way system (in at Gordon Road, out via Park Avenue) this would not be great as there are currently a play area and a skate park which would then possibly be right next to the road, or even worse divided by it.

Equally, the path along the field in question is already very busy as it is not only one of the main walking routes to school and into town but also used a lot by cyclists (it is a shared path). Careful planning would have to be done here to make this safer for both parties, pedestrians and cyclists!


The main thing to remember is that once open space is gone, it's gone forever!

If these plans trouble you, we can only recommend for you to write to Winchester City Council once again.