COUN Worth's continued insistence that the council tax payers would like to move the Castle Field sports facilities appears to be based mainly on the results of the report by leisure-net in August 2007.
Having examined the full report, I can find little basis for moving the facilities. Indeed, the main message of this report is that the Castle Leisure Centre should remain at or very near its existing location and no support for an out of town facili
ty exists.
Due to the mounting opposition to the plans, Coun Worth now infers that the protesters are wrong because they do not know all the facts.
Coun Worth also states that grants are not available for refurbishment at the Castle Field, omitting to say if grants are available for rebuild at the Castle, for example, the swimming pool could be rebuilt next to the old one.
There is plenty of room.
The suddenly-produced new costs given for the refurbishment of the swimming pool looks very much like scaremongering.
A full breakdown of these costs is required so they can be verified.
Before any more money is wasted I would urge South Holland District Council to call a halt to the present proposed route and conduct a poll of council tax payers, using their own newspaper (no extra cost). I would suggest the wording could be:
Do you wish the existing facilities at the Castle Field improved or rebuilt in its present location, or a new sports village out of town and the Castle Field a housing estate?
If the council then gets a clear mandate to rebuild the leisure facilities out of town the consultation process could then proceed.
MARTIN COX
Address supplied
The full article contains 296 words and appears in Spalding Guardian newspaper.
