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Golden time for sports, or just a Barrow race towards mediocrity?
• IT looks like the Tory ‘spin machine’ is working overtime!
Last week Conservative Westminster Council leader Colin Barrow claimed that the Council has “two brand new leisure centres opening over the next two years…”
This is a parody of the truth. Cllr Barrow is referring to two council sports centres, the Marshall Street Baths in Soho, and the Children’s Sports Centre in Maida Vale, which the council was forced to close after it had allowed them both to crumble into disrepair because it had failed to maintain them. They both remained closed for years until other organizations were found to fund them – a private developer for Marshall Street, and public funding for Crompton Street.
Cllr Barrow further says “93 per cent of Westminster school children spend two hours a week or more playing sport”.
Indeed they do, because the Labour government insists on it.
Meanwhile Westminster’s Conservative council provides as little as possible. Scores of women cannot swim because the council does not provide the women-only session with female lifeguards which women want. Westminster came last in this year’s London Youth Games. After-school provision is the worst in London.
Wake up Cllr Barrow! If you want Westminster sports people to have a chance in the 2012 Olympics, start putting in the funding now to support them.
CLLR BARBARA GRAHAME (Labour)
City Hall, Victoria Street, SW1
• THE takeover of our leisure provider, which has resulted in an additional saving for the council, has been in negotiation since 2006 and every penny will be spent on sports provision.
Indeed, in anticipation of this additional income we have already factored in an extra £250,000 spending into our three year business plan, and residents are already receiving the benefits of this.
This is an incredibly exciting time for sport in Westminster, with two brand new leisure centres in Soho and Little Venice due to open over the next two years, an investment of £16.5m.
In addition to this Westminster Academy in Westbourne Green is in the process of a £2m upgrade and Paddington Recreation Ground is currently undergoing a £3.5m investment in park and sports facilities, including remodelling and pitch and floodlights upgrade.
A new sports pavilion is also due to open in two months’ time, and we’re working hard to try and secure a major new sports and leisure centre in south Westminster in the near future.
On top of this, a range of additional community sports programmes are being delivered in 2009 including £50,000 for older persons programmes and £100,000 for increased school community facilities.
I assure all our residents that every single penny of extra income will go on delivering one of our most ambitious programmes of sporting investment ever.
David Kerrigan, Head of Parks, Sport and Leisure at Westminister Council
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