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Camelford leisure centre to close?

Graham Smith | 16:41 UK time, Monday, 18 October 2010

Impertinent journos have been pestering Cornwall Council to explain why staff at Camelford leisure centre have been told the council subsidy is being withdrawn at the end of the year. The council insists no decisions have been taken ahead of next week's Cabinet meeting, yet staff are equally insistent that they've been told to find a fresh source of revenue or find new jobs when the centre closes. Here's an extract from the council's statement:

".....the level of savings required within the Council's leisure service could not be identified within the existing operation. Following careful consideration of a range of issues, the leisure centre at Camelford which is run jointly with the local secondary school, has been identified as a site which the Council may no longer be able to finance and operate. The Council's Head of Leisure Services Simon Blamey recently met with the head teacher from the school to discuss the potential impact of this action. Staff from the Council will now be working with the school and staff from the centre to consider how the facility might operate in the future if the Council decides it can no longer finance and operate the centre."

Local residents, councillors, Facebook, Dan Rogerson MP etc are all being signed up to a "hands off Camelford" campaign. I think you'll be able to hear more about this on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Cornwall tomorrow morning. The council has about 20 leisure centres in its portfolio and you wouldn't want to bet that any is safe. Next week's cabinet should be even more fun than usual.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I am a teenager from Camelford and have been going to the leisure centre all my life. It is a ridculous idea to close it as it will deny so many rural children, and adults, the chance to learn to swim, have fun and meet new people. We live in an area surrounded by coast but the council want to stop teaching local children to swim. This is a disgrace and hundreds more people agree.
    To see our local community in action visit our Facebook Page [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

  • Comment number 2.

    Fine go on Facebook and search Save Camelford Leisure Centre.

  • Comment number 3.

    You dont have to pay for it, now do you Anna

  • Comment number 4.

    I learnt to swim in the sea.......

  • Comment number 5.

    Learning to swim in the sea is a thousand times more dangerous than in a proper swimming pool, especially when most beaches don't have full time lifeguards!?

  • Comment number 6.

    Anna-Gandalf, stick to your guns, protest loudly against any threatened closure, it's what democracy is all about.
    You may not win, but at least you will have tried.
    Do not let others put you off.

  • Comment number 7.

    Join curves gym and pay for your own pastimes. Most decent parents teach their own children to swim, I suspect you’re a 4x4 Mum

  • Comment number 8.

    Anna-Gandalf should tell us what she would cut or what tax she would increase to pay for this leisure centre.

  • Comment number 9.

    I suspect anna-golf is a childish play on words for An gof and is more likely to be an old man

  • Comment number 10.

    Maybe if you learnt to read you'd notice it says Anna-Gandalf, and I'm not an old man I'm 16 (like I also put). Being 16 I don't have kids and can't drive, that sort of ruined your argument, but even so... You may teach your kids to swim but surely it's better to be taught by a professional, otherwise they learn any mistakes you make, which for you is probably 100's. Maybe they could cut some of the top jobs or high salaries they're probably paying people like you. Or a Leisure Centre elsewhere, somewhere were the local people have the facilities to get to another one or in fact have any other facilities. Maybe if you visited Camelford you would discover how vital the Leisure Centre is and not just for learning to swim. It provides facilities and activities for all ages and even provided shelter for people who lost their homes in the Boscastle Flood.

  • Comment number 11.

    I take it being 16 you do not pay council tax or in fact any form of tax and I hope you do not have any children, so basically you want us to pay for your leisure activities. When you are older you may understand what really is vital and it isn't swimming

    backofanenvelope has asked a very obvious question care to enlighten us with an answer, because trying to link it with the floods in Boscastle is truly imprudent

  • Comment number 12.

    Can none of you read?
    'Maybe they could cut some of the top jobs or high salaries they're probably paying people like you. Or a Leisure Centre elsewhere, somewhere were the local people have the facilities to get to another one or in fact have any other facilities.'
    I've already answered this question! I may not pay tax now, but I will in the future, and maybe I would like a choice about what I'm going to be paying for! I still pay for my 'leisure activities' and are you trying to say you don't use anything that the tax payer contributes too?

  • Comment number 13.

    Oh good you have solved your own issue

    You will pay to join a private gym\club. You do not contribute anything so have no right to demand anything. For the record job and wages cuts are planned and have happened and this is the end result, they are sacking the staff as you suggested or are you thoughtlessly saying others should suffer but not you?

    Glad we all agree, you had the answer all along

  • Comment number 14.

    So you ask for my suggestion and then practically ignore it! That makes perfect sense.
    My suggestion of closing a different Leisure Centre doesn't make others suffer, because, like I said, they have access to other places. However many people in Camelford do not. I may not be contributing now, but I will be for a longer time than you, therefore I have the right to make a difference about what I WILL be contributing to.

  • Comment number 15.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 16.

    I can't quite see how I have been vindictive or parsimonious. My question was what Anna-Gandalf would cut in order to save Camelford's centre. Her answer was to close someone else's centre. Fair enough. At least she answered the question.

  • Comment number 17.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 18.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 19.

    Anna-Gandalf

    Let me quote you what you thoughtlessly said

    " Or a Leisure Centre elsewhere " The council would have done a study and considered this before choosing your centre for closure, in my comment I hoped you were not so selfish, guess I am wrong a 16 year old NIMBI

    Oh btw I live very near to camelford and I do not work for the council, I am self employed with no links to the council stop drawing wrong conclusions, I do object to selfishness when serious cuts are taking place and certainly feel unless you contribute your right to make demands is very limited, I object to the amount I pay in rates

  • Comment number 20.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 21.

    Thankyou backofanenvelope, I hope you realise I wasn't annoyed with you!. Do you have any idea why the above comments haven't been allowed?

  • Comment number 22.

    Just a thought, David Camerons big community, if so many people want it……. Somehow I suspect not.

    For me I am happy for this kind of waste to be cut if it allows essential services to continue. No reply from Anna required, this is my own personal feelings and I prefer not to debate with children who should be centres of learning @ this time

  • Comment number 23.

    To Anna-Gandulf

    I expect they were engaging in the usual blogging game of exchanging dreary insults. Take a look at the Telegraph blogs - there is a lot of it going on there.

  • Comment number 24.

    I am at college! I do get breaks is that alright with you? Or in your ideal world would all teenagers be locked away until they're old enough to pay taxes. And if you hadn't noticed it's your comment that needs further consideration which suggest that you may need to be taught how to follow rules as well as read!

  • Comment number 25.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 26.

    As led zeplin said " And it makes me wonder."

    If people google it now they will see the ´óÏó´«Ã½ censoring opinion and selfish 16 year old making demands other should be punished

    Returning to Led zeppelin

    " And the forests will Echo with laughter "

    Feel free to continue the censorship, the point is made with every comment removed

  • Comment number 27.

    One second is it me or does...
    'If people google it now they will see the ´óÏó´«Ã½ censoring opinion and selfish 16 year old making demands other should be punished'
    ... not make sense?
    And please learn to spell before attempting to insult people.

  • Comment number 28.

    "´óÏó´«Ã½ censoring opinion"?
    2 Posts removed for breaking House Rules, and 3 being sent for further consideration. and all 5 because someone other that a member of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ used the "Complain about this comment" function.
    So, not quite "censoring".
    As for the rest of it, I completely agree with Anna-Gandalf.

  • Comment number 29.

    Anna my comment was not directed at you. It was a light hearted reminder of how the greater world would read this. I doubt many outside your council estate are going to be happy that a little girl is demanding others should go without so she can have her own way, which is what you have stated

    At 11:32am on 20 Oct 2010, Anna-Gandalf wrote:
    Or a Leisure Centre elsewhere

    Perhaps you think about how wrong that answer you gave looks, because the more times you give that as an answer the less support you will have. The moderators are nervous I am bullying but if they bothered reading the entire thread they would see it was you that made the selfish comment and comments were not attacks on you just your theory

  • Comment number 30.

    Peter Tregantle wrote:-
    "Anna my comment was not directed at you. It was a light hearted reminder of how the greater world would read this."
    And:-
    "The moderators are nervous I am bullying but if they bothered reading the entire thread they would see it was you that made the selfish comment and comments were not attacks on you just your theory"
    So, when you say "I doubt many outside your council estate" you are in no way attempting to belittle or insult, to put down or bully, especially after other comments you have made in the past regarding your opinion of Council estates and their residents. I would say that the moderators are quite correct.

  • Comment number 31.

    By any chance do you comment from work Peter?

    I think it a fair comment to say Anna is rather naïve, but no more so than any other 16 year old

  • Comment number 32.

    Firstly I don't live on a council estate. Secondly, maybe if you visited Camelford you'd realise why we need our Leisure Centre more than most.

  • Comment number 33.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 34.

    Wow....The Council seem to be on this comment thread in full force hounding a 16 year old.

    She's got a valid point. Besides if she was a mum, how would she teach her kids to swim if theres NOWHERE TO SWIM?

    As for the jibes about paying no tax she's probably in education still. So shhh.

    She's damn right too, might I add. We pay shedloads of council tax, yet things are being cut and prices going up. I'm 19 from Bodmin, we pay the highest council tax here and see little in the way of return.

    If it was a private company, they'd have to cut their prices if they cut services or it'd be a "rip off".

  • Comment number 35.

    Well I've just moved to Camelford and I pay Council tax. I have no children and have my own car. I don't mind paying towards schools and buses, because it benefits the entire community.

    With winter upon us I want to join the leisure centre to keep fit indoors while the weather outside gets wet and wild.

    I don't understand other peoples comments to be honest. If they close the leisure centre, something used by the local school, do people honestly think your council tax bill wil go down or other services will improve? You'll pay the same but receive less.

    Yes cuts have to be made, closing the centre is a big one. Other services like the buses are being reduced in frequency, but the talk is of closing the centre entirely. Once it's closed it will be very hard to open again.



  • Comment number 36.

    It was announced tonight, that the so-called substantial funding offered by the leader of the council at the Communtiy's Scrutiny Meeting on the 4th November, is actually less than 45% of what is required to keep the Sports Centre open for the next financial year. Our three local councillors all say that if the committee had realised this at the time the budget proposal to stop support of the Leisure Centre would have been thrown out. WE HAVE BEEN SCREWED OVER ONCE AGAIN!!!

  • Comment number 37.

    All you other posters have gone strangely quiet, maybe because you thought the problem had been solved by the apparent offer from the council (as mentioned below)

    It was announced tonight, that the so-called substantial funding offered by the leader of the council at the Communtiy's Scrutiny Meeting on the 4th November, is actually less than 45% of what is required to keep the Sports Centre open for the next financial year. Our three local councillors all say that if the committee had realised this at the time the budget proposal to stop support of the Leisure Centre would have been thrown out.

    Well we definitely aren't standing for this!

  • Comment number 38.

    Good.

  • Comment number 39.

    The Council would not have dared to close a leisure centre in a middle class community like Wadebridge, despite the fact that users in that area could afford more to preserve their facilities. Why pick on one of the poorest, most remote communities in Cornwall to deprive of yet another much needed service? But of course, they are Tories! Get rid of them next election time.

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