A poor relation?
There's growing concern in Camelford that the town's leisure centre might be excluded from the "Cornish family" of leisure services included in the portfolio about to be handed over to a charitable trust. Cornwall Council tells me:
"The trust is still in the process of being established. A final decision on whether Camelford Leisure Centre would be included in the trust has not yet been taken."Looks like the celebrations which accompanied December's £50,000 tide-over from County Hall might have been premature.
I'm ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
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At 4th Aug 2011, Rowena Hoseason wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 2.
At 4th Aug 2011, Rowena Hoseason wrote:Well, the folks at Camelford are not alone. The historic tidal Sea Pool at Bude only just kept its funding for this summer season after much protest. Cornwall Council have been completely clear to us: if the running costs and responsibility for the Sea Pool aren't taken on by the local community then it'll shut next year, and probably be demolished to 'make it safe,'
The Sea Pool is open access from the beach and free to use. Most visitors think they pay for it by paying to park in the beach car parks; most local businesses think they pay for it in their business rates, and most local home owners think they pay for it in their council tax. But under 'localism', a volunteer charity community group will have to generate between £30,000 and £50,000 each year to keep it open in future -- wastefully duplicating infrastructure and systems, losing expertise, and reinventing a few wheels in the process.
The Friends of Bude Sea Pool are prepared to stand up and from 2012 accept responsibility for what is an important tourist attraction, a benefit to the wider community, a source of local employment and an historic 1930s construction.
It seems ridiculous that we have to do this, however. The Leisure Services dept of Cornwall Council actively supports events like the Big Cornwall Swim, a one-off event which gave 175 people access to a reservoir, yet it won't pay to life-guard Bude's sea pool which provides safe swimming for that many people *every day* during the summer season.
Worse yet... if Bude's sea pool were to close, then all the vulnerable swimmers who normally use it would be forced into the sea, in turn requiring more life-guards to be stationed on the beach. So there would be no cost saving whatsoever. This is all just political paper-shuffling; budget-fudging of the worst order.
Am I ticked off about it? You bet.
Am I doing something about it? Of course. The Sea Pool is too valuable to allow it to fall by the wayside due to political ineptitude.
RH / founder member, FoBSP.
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