Queens Park Leisure Centre: Consultation is little more than rubber stamping

On 2nd May I was at the Town Hall with Alan Maris a campaigner from the Save Our Leisure Centre residents group.

We handed over a file with the names of over three thousand two hundred local people who had signed a petition against plans to close Queen's Park.

I have been contacted by residents and share their anger at the plans to abandon Queen's Park and offer a downgraded sports centre which would be shared as part of a 'duel usage' scheme with students from Chesterfield College.

Part of the scheme will mean classrooms will be sited in the new building and facilities like badminton will be restricted and shared with students during the academic year.

No wonder that Chesterfield residents are asking why can't the existing centre be refurbished.

Representatives from the campaign group have scrutinised the figures in the council's feasibility study and report that the case being presented, that it is financially more viable to re build, instead of refurbish, just doesn't add up.

Six million pounds would need to be spent and nowhere are there accurate figures to allow for paying off the interest incurred in the repayment of this massive loan over twenty five years.

Nowhere are there accurate figures for the demolition of the old site - so how can locla people make up their mind when these numbers are not available to them? It's YOUR money, after all.

I have asked the Council leader four times as to what are the plans for Queen's Park if it stands empty.

Cllr John Burrows has failed to answer if selling off for commercial gain is a possibility.

Queen's Park has been left to the people of Chesterfield, the Annexe has covenants to say it should be for recreational use and left open.

The controversial redevelopment plans go against all of this, and therefore should not be allowed to happen.

The new centre will mean the people of Chesterfield borrowing a huge amount of money. As with any loan, the people of Chesterfield will have to pay it back, one way or another.

This project will be built on community land, and it will have restricted facilities.

This will leave Chesterfield residents with no diving facilities whatsoever, a smaller swimming pool and no athletics track.

Phase One of the consultation would be welcomed if it was an exercise in a little more than rubber stamping a shade of paint.

Very big questions still remain unanswered.

Julia Cambridge

NB: The letter above originally appeared on website for The Derbyshire Times on 4 June 2013. Please click here to find the article online and to leave your comments.