Issue 511 – New group ready to consider Westbury leisure facilities

A new group, which has been set up to address the future of leisure facilities in Westbury, will soon be asking for local people to come forward with their ideas.

The group has formed an initial committee of which Neil Hawker, secretary of the Leighton Sports Association and chair of the Westbury Cricket Club, has been named as chairperson.
The executive committee will meet this week before looking at opening the group up to all interested parties.
Neil Hawker said, “We’ve got the embryo of an executive committee of five people, we’re meeting to move things forward and formally take on a constitution and discuss the aims, which are completely open – we have no preconceived ideas on how we wish to go forward.”
He added that the group wants to involve both villages and users in the town, as well as liaising with the town council.
Neil said, “I feel quite confident we can go forward, we all seem to be on the right track.”
Wiltshire Council is proposing that both Westbury Swimming Pool and Leighton Recreation Centre should be run under community ownership.
The community-run leisure centre would be managed and operated by the local community and not the council.
Under Wiltshire Council’s proposals, a new £3m indoor bowls centre would be installed at Leighton Recreation Centre, and the pool and recreation centre would be refurbished before being transferred to community ownership.

Last chance to have your say in leisure consultation.

A Wiltshire Council public consultation is currently in progress, which will close on the 29th October. The cabinet will review the outcome of the consultation in December 2010 and full council will consider the financial impact of the proposals in February 2011.
The consultation has been met with anger by local people, who identified it as unfair and undemocratic. Among them, the former Save Westbury Pool committee criticised the questionnaire as one that is “quite clearly designed to elicit responses from the general public which confirm the Wiltshire Council’s preferred policy of providing new multi-purpose centres/hubs and off loading existing local facilities onto community trusts.”
However, the questionnaire does provide the space to add further comments which people are encouraged to make use of.