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Zac Roswell |
Lifeline for popular basketball club
BUDGET pressures should not be used as an excuse to scrap sports clubs for young people, parents campaigning to save a basketball club have insisted.
They are seeking support from police officers and doctors to champion the role sport can play in improving youngsters’ lives after discovering the Talacre Sports Centre’s basketball club faces the axe.
Camden Council say grants they had used to fund coaching staff are due to run out in July, but a petition against the plans, organised by parents of youngsters who attend the club, has garnered hundreds of signatures.
Parents have written to the Town Hall’s head of sport Nigel Robinson saying they simply will not accept the closure of a club, which has won glowing praise.
Parent Michele Sigler said: “We believe it’s not enough to say that times are tough, so we have to trim sports’ budgets.
“Even if it’s just a year or two to a budget writer – until the economy rebounds – it’s a major part of a child or young person’s life, and makes all the difference to that child’s life. If money can be found for banks, it can be found for kids.”
When the New Journal broke the story of the position of popular coach Zac Roswell being under threat, Camden Council said it would “work hard” to secure alternative funding for the basketball club.
Now the Town Hall claim they have found a way of keeping the club going – but cannot specify for exactly how long, saying only that it will be in the “short term”.
A spokeswoman said that although no extra cash had been found, they had “made capacity for the basketball sessions through the willingness of our staff to work as flexibly as possible.”
She said this meant juggling how staff worked and spent time on administration duties, and added the Town Hall could make no guarantees about its long-term future despite working with the club to solve the crisis caused by the funding cuts.
The spokeswoman added: “We aim to secure additional resources with the basketball club for the long-term sustainability of the sessions.
“If new resources are not secured then we will review the situation at that time and assess what scope there may be to continue the existing arrangements.” |
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