Headteacher criticises state of leisure centre
SOUTH Kesteven District Council has come in for more criticism over the state of Deepings Leisure Centre and the uncertainty surrounding its future.
The centre, next to the Deepings School on Park Road, Deeping St James, has come in for countless criticism in recent years due to its state of repair.
Complaints have included broken glass in the sports hall, dirty floors, toilets and changing rooms, faults with the swimming pool boiler, leaks in a squash court and outdated or faulty equipment in the gym.
At a meeting of the Deepings Forum, held at the centre on Wednesday, Chris Beckett, headteacher at the Deepings School, which uses the centre, asked why the centre had been allowed to fall into such a poor state.
He said: "Why was there not a plan in place? If 50,000 a year had been put aside we would have half a million now to spend on the centre, which still may not be enough, but it would mean we were not in the critical situation we are in now."
District councillor Ray Auger, a parish councillor for Deeping St James, said improvements had been carried out at the site but the budget had been spent.
Work including new carpets in the canteen area, window cleaning, replacing ceiling tiles, painting, replacing toilet seats and general cleaning has been carried out and Mr Auger acknowledged that far more needs doing.
He said: "It costs money and has to be budgeted for. The changing room walls and floors need re-tiling and the plant (boiler) needs a lot of work but it cannot all be done at once."
Mr Beckett said that other than the astro turf pitch, the site had not had significant capital put in for 30 years.
He added: "The swimming pool is often out of use and the sports hall is in a terrible state.
"We're talking about a centre that we want the community and our children to use.
"Without serious investment we are going to have big problems."
Representatives of Deepings Swimming Club urged the council to take action quickly.
The club has had to cancel training and provide refunds to members on countless occasions due to the failure of the plant.
Coun Pauline Redshaw, of Market Deeping Town Council, said: "People want to know what will be done now, not what may be done in the future.
"The problems have been known and discussed for such a long time.
"It seems everything that we're being told is 'in the future' or being 'thought about'."
The centre is run by Leisure Connection but due to a short lease it has also been unwilling to invest.
Speculation has also mounted that the centre may be demolished within ten years to allow the school to be re-built or expanded.
Coun Auger added: "Unfortunately it's not the sort of thing we can just invest 200,000 in.
"We perhaps could next year if it is approved but there is still an issue surrounding whether a leisure trust will be taking over or not."
A leisure trust taking over the site has been suggested as it has access to funding from other sources.
The main issues raised, the state of the building and its future will be taken back to the council for consideration.
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Weather for Spalding
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: -7 C to 1 C
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