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All six leisure centres to stay open

4:45pm Monday 19th February 2007

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North Wiltshire District Council has reached an agreement to allow all six leisure centres remain open until March 31.

All staff will become employees of the district council from tonight. This means the Olympiad at Chippenham, White Horse at Calne, Cricklade Leisure Centre, Lime Kiln and Wootton Basset, the Activity Zone at Malmesbury and Corsham Leisure Centre will be saved for the short term.

Negotiations are continuing with Calne and Cricklade to allow them to stay open after March 31.

A district council spokesman said: "The negotiations have been extremely complex due to the issues surrounding the transfer of staff under TUPE regulations.

"However, the Council is pleased to announce that progress has been made and that NWLL staff will be transferred to the Council for a period up to 31st March 2007, until they are transferred to a new service provider.

Council leader Carol O'Gorman said: "The council will pay the wages of the staff until March 31st.

"We were working on this agreement all day Friday and spent some time on it over the weekend and it has taken up the most part of today too.

"Every time we turned a corner there was another problem to deal with but all along we have been trying to safeguard the staff contracts. The staff are the most important ingredient in all of this as they make it possible for people to continue to use the centres.

"The leisure centres will stay open and that is the news we all wanted to hear."

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Your Say YourThe Wiltshire Gazette and Herald

bearded lifeguard, corsham says...
5:01pm Mon 19 Feb 07

great news that aall staff keep thier jobs, but let us not forget what nwdc have put us through. They have been forced into this position by people power. They were the ones who put nwll in trouble in the first place and this should not be forgotten come may. Cllr o` gormless, sorry gorman, should leave north wilts with her tail between her legs. And as for the GYM uk, i hope your crappy little building collapses under all the weight of your body building powders. Thank you and goodnight

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Angry User, Calne says...
5:12pm Mon 19 Feb 07

I think that we have to avoid glorifying NWDC who attempted to wash their hands of the situation by claiming it wasn;t their fault. The reality is that NWDC were the ownwers of the contract with NWLL to supply management of these leisure centres. As contract managers they were completely incompetent and if they had been doing their job all along we would never have been here and wiltshire would be a thriving sporting community. Begs the question, what else have they messed up behind our backs.

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REALIST, calne says...
5:41pm Mon 19 Feb 07

From information that i have been given there is a rescue plan for the white horse leisure centre that seems credible and believable. why are the council not considering this plan. have the council already decided to sell or have sold the site for housing ??

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stressed but relieved, wootton bassett says...
6:21pm Mon 19 Feb 07

Could Leader O'Gorman please resign. She has caused our family so much stress and sleepless nights and I'm sure I speak for a lot of people. You may have spent some time working on the solution Ms O'G over the weekend but my heart has been racing and I've eaten so much chocolate!! I could sue you for my weight gain. In fact, I think you should carry a government health warning around your neck. Be bold. be brave. be gone!!

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Disgusted, Wilts says...
6:22pm Mon 19 Feb 07

There is a very realistic package on the table for Calne but NWDC keep putting barriers in the way, this is what we were told at a meeting on Friday. It makes you think then that NWDC have a reason for not wanting the bid to succeed? At this meeting it was said they NWDC had been offered a vast amount of money for the site somewhere in the region of 2 1/2 million.

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Chris, chippenham says...
7:34pm Mon 19 Feb 07

"However, the Council is pleased to announce that progress has been made and that NWLL staff will be transferred to the Council for a period up to 31st March 2007"


Ohhhh thank you so much NWDC you are wonderful, brilliant, what would we do without you....

Now get your pens out and sign that documents with the title RESIGNATION on the top.


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Fed Up member of staff (WHLC), calne says...
7:52pm Mon 19 Feb 07

Although this is good and the centre will remain open i dont feel too happy about it. my day at work over the weekend and today have been awful, telling all the customers i've got to know over the years that we've cancelled various activities and we cant guarentee them a refund has been the worst job i've ever had to do!i've told so many customers we're closing and then the hopeless council change their mind again.why did we receive a statement friday night saying we were definately closing when they knew there was another option?!we are all going to have a rubbish time at work until the end of march where this will happen all over again.im sure i heard carol o gorman say on the news that the staff are the most important ingredient, if this is true then start treating us with some respect!as at the end of the day if staff weren't passionate about their centre then the building would've been shut as soon as we were told we wont be getting paid.i find the fact that all day today the staff weren't told anything before the public and press absolutely disgusting.as far as im concerned the only way forward for the white horse leisure centre is Athena Leisure and i would urge everyone to support this move otherwise ive heard the council will allow it to be knocked down to build houses on.dont get me wrong im pleased the centre is staying open but staff morale is still at all time low as there isn't much to keep us going.we are like a big family who have nearly had our home taken away!thank you for your time

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Ignorance Personified, Chippenham says...
7:59pm Mon 19 Feb 07

What an enlightening afternoon. In a moment of pure brilliance whilst I was standing at the Olympiad reception paying for my badminton court, Cllr Carol O'Dumman and Cllr Diane 'up O' Dummans arse' Moore strode into the Lesiure centre and announced 'Its ok you have all got jobs, we have saved you!'

What an amazing display of igorance! I acually felt embarrassed for them and their apparent stupidity. More importantly they have saved nothing. This has been a triumph of common sense and pressure of the definite public fall out that would have occurred should the centres have closed.

So O'Gorman and Moore, make the Wiltshire a more beautiful place and disappear. but I suggest you walk away, being that you both are notably in need of exercise that you havent been getting from the leisure centres that you tried to close!

And to the residents of North Wiltshire, I emplore that you keep this fiasco at the forefront of your minds when the elections roll round in May. Out with the old trouts and in with sme new gold fish.

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unbelievable, North Wilts says...
10:30pm Mon 19 Feb 07

At the meeting at WHLC it was stated that DC Leisure asked to take over all 6 centres and NWDC wouldn't allow this to happen, why? But now they are prepared to allow an unknown company to run it, but this company are planning to build another centre eventually by the side which will leave the land that it stands on now free, probably to build houses on, oh cynical me!!!!!!

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POOL PARTY, says...
10:33pm Mon 19 Feb 07

POOL! POOL! POOL! POOL! POOL PARTY YEAH YEAH YEAH! PARTY AT THE LEISURE CENTRE 14/7 BABY! POOL! POOL! POOL! GET THOSE GROOVES GOIN PARTY PEOPLE. USE YOU LOCAL LEISURE FACILITIES EVERY DAY BABY SWEET CHEEKS! WOO!

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exhausted staff member, chippenham says...
11:45pm Mon 19 Feb 07

An incompetent and self serving woman has, since December, alternatively swung an axe at our necks and then, God like, come to our rescue? What is this Carol O'Gorman woman? Has she no idea of the fallout of her and her little bunch of sycophants' behaviour in the closure/rescue pantomime. We are poorly paid, appallingly treated and, just to put the icing on the cake, patronised to within an inch of our lives by this woman and her cronies. The other staff member is right. If it weren't for the goodwill of the staff, the centres would have been closed by now, following this charade. Carol O'Gorman, you are a turncoat and a nightmare and I am sick and tired of my ability to put food in my children's mouths being dependent on your ridiculous, publicity seeking/avoiding actions. You are incompetent and an embarrassment and you should resign.

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Body builder, Chippenham says...
8:19am Tue 20 Feb 07

Don't celebrate yet, they are all open until March, wow! Not!
In an age where we are concerned about our children becoming obese and unfit, how on earth can any council/government go ahead and even let something like this drivel on. It's disgusting to even think they would close these leisure centres down for whatever reason. All about money! We pay more than enough council tax, and yet to have large increases(what ever happened to the protests when they first tried bringing in the 'poll tax'. We must be paying a **** of a lot more now in comparrison, we've just tollerated the steady increases as usual. Just like all the other taxes we tolerate. But anyway, if they do keep these centres open, where will they build all the new housing which is planned for them?(being very sarcastic)!

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Drive the witches from our land, chippenham says...
9:32am Tue 20 Feb 07

Lets start a new movement that drives that self serving, narsissistic, grunting idot Carol O'Gorman and her dim, knuckle dragging crony Diane Moore out of office at NWDC. Both are clueless about the need for leisure in North Wiltshire. Both have their own private agenda's that are likely to involve lining thier own pockets. We as residents of North Wiltshire should demand a public inquiry into the gross incompetence displayed by these fools. Lets drive these witches from our land!

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Jonathan Jones, Wilts says...
10:53am Tue 20 Feb 07

I have a few questions I would like answered:
1. How can Councillor Moore get away with lying to so many people?
2. Why did Councillor’s O’Gorman and Moore think it was right to waltz into the Olympiad just after 4pm yesterday proclaiming they were the saviours of leisure in North Wiltshire and the had saved all the staffs jobs?
3. How dare they both with a reporter and an ignorant fool feel it was appropriate to barge into a secure area and disrupt children’s activities, HOW DARE YOU?
4. Is it or is it not true that you have been working with DC Leisure for weeks now?
5. Again is it true that all the DC Leisure staff new before the NWLL staff?
6. How could you let all the NWLL staff and board think that there was no way a deal could be done with DC and this was on Friday?

All the staff had the worse weekend ever, not sure if they had a job, not sure if they would get paid, not sure if they could even pay their mortgages.

IT WILL SHORTLY BE TIME FOR ANSWERS, O’GORMAN AND MOORE BE PREPARED. EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT YOU TWO ARE THE DRIVING FORCES BEHIND THIS SHAMBLES. YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN FOR MAKING EVERYBODY’S LIFE ****.

IT IS TIME YOU BOTH RESIGNED OR ARE YOU WILLING TO RISK THE EMBARRASSMENT OF ONLY HAVING YOUR OWN VOTE IN THE BALLOT BOX IN MAY.

LET’S GET TOGETHER AND FORCE THESE INCOMPETENT IDIOTS OUT. WE NEED GOOD HONEST AND LOYAL PEOPLE IN CHARGE NOT THESE TWO WHO ARE DECEITFUL AND CONCEITED.

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Concerned husband, Calne says...
12:33pm Tue 20 Feb 07

My wife was at last night's meeting at the White Horse Leisure Centre in Calne and describes the Athena 'plans' as 'airy-fairy' to say the least. It seems NWDC have agreed a peppercorn rent for the White Horse centre, but that Athena want to build a new all-singing all-dancing fancy centre 'behind' the existing one. Where, exactly? On the John Bentley playing fields, or in Bentley Wood? And where's the money coming from?
The only sensible thing is for DC Leisure, an already experinced company in the field, to take over this and the other five centres and give them what North Wilts Leisure Limited never gave them, namely proper maintenance and, above all, proper financial and administrative management. NWLL was never anything other than a 'poodle' of the Council, and the way the latter have turned their backs on the problems and allowed the current unacceptable situation to develop is totally inforgiveable.
Carol O'Gorman needs to remember that she actually sits on the NWDC by courtesy of the voters of Calne. Since she was elected to the NWDC she has led a number of debacles which have had a very detrimental effect on the well-being of Calne - witness the fact that the Bank House car park stands practically empty, with correspondingly chaotic parking problems elsewhere in the town, since she pushed through plans for parking charges, traffic wardens etc. Carol should resign now, before she loses her seat the next time she offers herself for re-election - not sure if her seat is being contested in May, but even if it isn't, her Lib Dem colleagues whose seats are up for grabs then must be quaking in their boots at the follies of their leader!
The important thing is that the Sports Centres must ALL be saved, and if Athena and/or DC Leisure can guarantee theeir futures, all well and good. But it smells a bit that Athena plan a new centre to replace the one on which they pay only a peppercorn rent: do they, perhaps, plan to buy the old Centre from the Council once the new one is open, and then demolish it and build yet more lucrative housing on the site? I wonder...
Let DC Leisure get stuck in and sort eveything out without further interference from NWDC, say I!

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Steve - Corsham swimmer\'s concerned father, Chippenham says...
1:18pm Tue 20 Feb 07

I found it interesting, to say the least, having read that Cllr Diane Moore was keen to let leisure centre staff know in person that she & Cllr Carol O'Gorman had personally saved all their jobs!(Wow what heroes!) In the morning she told staff outside the Council offices, who were surprised she was making a statement regarding their situation as none of them had received any form of communication whatsoever prior to this, she was legally unable to talk to them at all (I was there attending a demonstration).She was also quick to deflect any responsibility for the state of affairs away from her department and onto the other parties involved. Quick to take the glory later in the day but none of the flack in the morning! The powers that be have become very adept in this country at putting protective layers in to convieniently hide behind and blame when the going gets tough.

Why do we continue to treat these services in purely business terms. Whilst I accept they need to be ran efficiently and reprisent value for money we only ever hear the accountants view of what they are costing to run and never the argument of, for many different reasons, what would they cost to our society not to run!


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Tax Payer and voter, Chippenham says...
1:33pm Tue 20 Feb 07

May I urge all people who are prepared to make comment to formally complain in writing to Cllr O'Gorman and Cllr Moore at NWDC.

We have an uphill battle to ensure the centres stay open beyond the next few months. I may be cynical, but I can't help thinking that once we return to routine our self-serving leaders will take the cash and deny all knowledge of support for the centres.

How many more houses can we build for lovely young families without providing infra-structure and appropriate facilities? Cllr Moore and Cllr O'Gorman should be ashamed that they have let the situation get to this stage....how brazen and hard-nosed can they be?

Have any deals been done behind closed doors?

It's marvellous that both Cllrs O'Gorman & Moore worked so hard on Friday and Monday (!) - did they perhaps realise that they were fighting for their own jobs too?


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ashamed of chippenham, chippenham says...
2:18pm Tue 20 Feb 07

Most of you on here should be ashamed of yourselves. You rant and rave about how badly you have all been treated and how Cllrs have let you down so badly. But most of you will never take the time to find out the TRUE facts. But are happy enough to pass comment on here, without bothering to find out, if what is being said is true.
I was in the Olympiad yesterday. and the staff member who was complaining. Sould prehaps learn who she is talking about. Because it was not either O'Gorman or Moore who made the comment BUT the reported that they were with. But of course that would not have made such a good comment, would it!
Get real! these people have had to make difficult decissions and none of us know how WE would have handled the sittuation. But at least they had the guts to stick in there and try and find a solution AND not to walk away and leave it to someone else.
Now you are even sugesting that there were back handers involved!I fail to see what you think they could have gained by taking back handers.
So I take it that every one of you who has critisised a councillor and the way that the council is being run. Will of course be standing for election in May. NO, of course you wont. In fact most of you will not even be bothered to vote!

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pjm, w/bassett says...
3:36pm Tue 20 Feb 07

Drive the witches from our land wrote:
Lets start a new movement that drives that self serving, narsissistic, grunting idot Carol O'Gorman and her dim, knuckle dragging crony Diane Moore out of office at NWDC. Both are clueless about the need for leisure in North Wiltshire. Both have their own private agenda's that are likely to involve lining thier own pockets. We as residents of North Wiltshire should demand a public inquiry into the gross incompetence displayed by these fools. Lets drive these witches from our land!
Show me where to sign!

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ashamed of calne, calne says...
6:53pm Tue 20 Feb 07

well said ashamed of chippenham! the majority of people do not vote and would not consider standing for election. it is also a fact that the majority of people do not use the leisure centres, more people spend time fishing,jogging,playing football,rugby,hockey, cricket etc etc. no one has offered to subsidise their leisure activities why should they subsidise yours. grow up if it was not carol o'gorman it would have been someone else. in any event the tories at the district council have been complaining that NWLL should have been wound up 12/18 months ago so if they had been in power they would have done the same but sooner!!!!!!!!!!!

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Ian, Chippenham says...
8:33pm Tue 20 Feb 07

Well done ashamed ones, personal friends to the rescue! I think your outnumbered in opinion here. These people are standing up for something they believe in. NWLL was never given the support from the start, infact many of the staff didn't want to leave the councils employment when the trust was set-up, the fact is the council did not support NWLL enough in in short life. Ashamed you should be as a council supporter, if the development of leisure in NW had been properly planned from the formation of the trust then we wouldn't be in this situation.

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Staff Memeber, Calne says...
5:54pm Wed 21 Feb 07

To fed up member of staff, White Horse Calne.
Good to see you remained positive over the weekend telling customers we were closing without a doubt, stop moaning like an old woman. Athena Leisure, who the **** are they? not even registered at company house. They want to take over a centre where they don't even know what the changing rooms look like. good to see they have done their homework. How do you know their rescue plan is credible? Have you seen it? What makes them think they can do a better job than NWLL? They 2 will be handing back the keys when they realise they cannot make it work either.

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Disappointed of Cricklade, Cricklade says...
11:28pm Thu 22 Feb 07

I went to the Council meeting tonight, it was a sad affair. The budget is an important thing. To see members of political parties from both side pontificate and take stances was sad. To watch the Conservative members abstain from the budget vote was very sad. More people abstained than voted Still it is good to see they got excited enough to save a toilet in a 300 people village that by their own admission is not used by locals.

As for the Liberals, well do they understand what they are doing. Do they have a grasp on the numbers and their responsibilities.

Should we trust our money and Wiltshire to these people. Their own face comes first before the communities they serve.

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Disappointed of Cricklade, Cricklade says...
11:32pm Thu 22 Feb 07

As for the leisure centerers, there was one amendment that would have saved them, they let it go. May I remind the parties involved that abstaining is the same as voting against the proposal in the public eye. So I saw Conservatives and Lib's unite to not save the Leisure Centerers.

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Mortified, Cricklade says...
6:00pm Tue 27 Feb 07

There is also a very viable business plan proposed to keep Cricklade open - but it appears only 2 councillors actually got to see it - I echo those comments of others above in calling for the resignations of O'Gorman and Moore, exactly who the **** do they think they are - the actions relayed here in response to the Leisure Centre staff - are unbelievable. NWDC are going to have more than just the leisure centre problem on their hands soon - the staff have grounds for complaints to tribunals .. more taxpayers money being used. As for the public toilet - lets all try playing badminton in it shall we .. NWDC - sort yourselves out.

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