This report seems to suggest that the fight to save the White Horse Leisure Centre is all but over, and that the North Wilts District Council will get its way. I hope Carol O'Gorman is now satisfied!

I may be simplifying things, but I read into this story a suggestion that Athena Leisure requested from NWDC exactly what Cricklade asked for - and got! - namely a sum of £60,000 to help to get the Centre back in shape. And it seems Athena Leisure have reason to believe that this request will be refused, and that they, Athena, will be blamed. They also seem to think that Calne Town Council will refuse its help towards paying the rates - but it would not hurt NWDC to waive the rates charges for a year or two to help make the Centre viable again.

Athena Leisure have been telling us for some weeks that they were unable to detect any political will within the NWDC to keep the Centre open, and it certainly appears from this report that this has not changed.

I shall await further developments; the next important step is for the Calne Town Council to pledge its support - and its financial contribution, as requested - at its meeting on Monday night. If they agreee - and I hope they will - that will leave the ball firmly in the NWDC's court. Do they dare to go on thwarting the plans of Athena Leissure for the benefit of the people of Calne? Or are they still intent on banking that fat cheque and bringing the bulldozers in?

Sadly Brian I think we all know the answer to your last comment.

I was wondering if a reported from the Gazette and Herald would do us a big favour and call up the council for a short statement for us. The question I would like them to ask is "Can you give the people of Calne a promise that the land on which the sports centre is built will not be used for housing of any kind?". Perhaps that would allay the fears of Calne that the reason all attempts to save the centre have been turned down by the council is purely for their own financial gain.

I hope to see the result in the next edition!

I fully understand that over the last few days the press has carried a fair degree of depressing copy and people are beginning to talk about the Centre closing. Believe it or not many people have written us off on more occasions than have been reported in the press but we are still here. Jill and I are still very positive and are working hard to make sure that CTC sees things our way and helps with financial support at the meeting on Monday. Next step will be to help NWDC to recognise that we want our Centre and that we can manage the business. Please keep you spirits up. It would be great if I can log on to this message board tomorrow and see ten messages of support - can anyone out there contribute ?

It's a shame that with all that has been written in this 'Comment' section showing the peoples support for our Leisure Centre and Athena, that it seems to stop here. We don't even know if the NWDC have even bothered to read the comments. I would have thought that you, Mick or Athena could have elevated it beyond our local newspaper, no disrespect to the Gazette and Herald who have been good enough to let Calne's voice be heard, but maybe to a TV Station or even a National newspaper using the tack that the Government is telling us that it's imperative that we exercise to reduce obesity in ourselves but more importantly, in our children. Yet our very own facility to help achieve this is being denied us!!!

I don't know - maybe I'm just clutching at straws. I have even tried to get support from the National Lottery Fund but even they have not responded.

Athena are quoted as saying that they are made up of experienced business and sports-minded people who desperately want the scheme to succeed. Don't worry Mick about the people supporting you and Athena. I'm sure I speak for all concerned that we are behind you both every inch of the way!. Good luck for the next meeting.

I would just like to add that if this council fails it's people over this extremely important issue, then the Liberals will NEVER get my vote either locally or nationally and this is something I've heard voiced time and again.

On behalf of Athena Leisure I would like to clarify some of the concerns expressed by readers of this column.
Firstly Athena Leisure Ltd is a newly formed company that has no experience at all in running leisure centres. It is however, the trading name we have given to the company that we will use to run this centre and Warminster.
What we have is vast experience of running and developing businesses that may be failing, want to increase turnover and profitability or simply want to change direction.
Lauchlan is a former corporate lawyer and has recently retired from a plc company which was facing bankruptcy 7 years ago and is now showing a very health profit with 145 staff and a new factory.
Craig Pickles is the current president of Tym USA and MD of Tym International. Tym tractors sell specialists tractors for sports fields across the world. Craig is a former ranked junior badminton player and is passionate about his determination to develop sport in the UK.
Steve lewis is an architect and a former commissioner of scouts for Wales.
I am a former director of England Squash and a former Chair of Wiltshire junior squash
Together we have invested heavily in our plans to develop Warminster rugby Club's ground, we have over come numerous obstacles including politicians that give support and then vote against you and a highways department that have policies that take some believing.

We thought that whilst that project was dragging on we would invest our money and time in saving Calne leisure centre.
To put it into some perspective the centre did employ 8 full time staff and 25 casual or part time members and had a turnover of £500,000. As we want to get involved in sports we see this as an opportunity to use our skills, to demonstrate what can be done with the correct management, motivated staff that have management support and direction, somone who can bring a long term solution to a business that was being forced to close, when it didn't need to.
We all know that the centre has had little investment over the last 6 years and has been run by a company that appears to have lost its way some time back. We think the staff have been heroic in holding it all together as long as they did.

With regard to the funding of the centre, we have asked for some financial support from Calne town council and NWDC.
Calne Town council are considering our request for some funding towards the cost of the rates. Currently the rates are £8000 pa, as we are a private company this will increase to £47,000. We have asked for some support for just 2 years.
NWDC have offered a sum of £60,000 towards the upgrade of the centre, this money is to be guaranteed by the directors personally and repaid should the business fail. We have asked them not to give the money to us but to invest it directly into the centre. We have also asked the schools to review thier use of the building and to work with us on developing a sensible business arrangement that benefits the school, the business and other centre users.
We are not DC Leisure and wouldn't want to be, we have no right to ask NWDC for vast sums of money to run the centre and don't feel that we need to. As this centre was losing £170,000 pa we feel that the major financial risk is ours and we are prepared to take that risk.
We have been to meetings where we thought an agreement had been reached only to find that someone further down the line is not aware of what has been said and vetos the proposal.
We have asked for management accounts and staff contracts, as yet we haven't seen anything. It is difficult to assess the viability of a business without the most basic of information.
We are frustrated by some of the unusual decisions that have been made, namely closing the centre the day before the schools shut for 2 weeks and now we find the vandals have been around, the centre has been emptied of all useful equipment. If we are successful we hope it can be returned but we don't know.
These points alone lead us to feel that there is a lack of will from the executives of NWDC to keep the centre operational. We feel that they see DC leisure as a solution and are happy with that.
We understand that there are concerns about an unknown group of business people wanting to run the centre, I have tried to set out our position above, we are simply a group of business people who have tried to put together a proposal for consideration. If it's not acceptable then we thank everyone for giving us the time.
We thank all those that have given us thier support and can assure you that we will try hard to secure an agreement, which we still believe is possible.

J Brennan

WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR!!!
Thankyou Athena for clarifying the why's and wherefores of the difficulties you are encountering from NWDC.
It would appear that they deem themselves privileged in wrapping in a cloak of secrecy all the details which they obviously feel is non of our business.
I feel certain that with the dedication of good staff being motivated by people with your business acumen, the centre can be a good profit maker, as I'm sure it once must have been.
My every good wish goes with you, along with all the people who are heart-broken over this dastardly deed.(sounds over dramatic but that's how people are feeling over the council's betrayal).

Hi

Great to get some clarity on the situation.

The first of many (no doubt) leaflets on the May elections came through the door yesterday, from a Lib Dem; not a mention of the leisure centre issue. Not a surprise, but still disappointing. That's one issue which which the towns people want addressing. I can't wait for one to appear on the doorstep canvassing, and that feeling is echoed amongst many I know in the town.

I really hope that NWDC see sense and allow Athena to proceed with their plans. This is a rapidly growing town, and even very recently Persimmon Homes were sighting the WHLC as a facility in their advertisements. Why can't they be persuaded to help out? After all it might help their sales to have a fully functioning leisure facility for the town.

I hope the town council meeting tomorrow night brings positive news for the centre.

Mick Davenport said that he wanted to see some messages of support - so here is one.
I have tried everything I could think of to try and create as much of a fuss about this as I can. I have complained to the Local Government Ombudsman about the conduct of NWDC, I have written to our MP, Michael Ancram, who does seem to show support as he believes that NWDC have not done enough in trying to find alternative sources of funding for the centre. This was re-assuring as I was beginning to think I was insane in expecting a council to do something that was representing residents interests. I have also written to my local Calne Town councillors to try to canvass support for the Athena Leisure plan.
I've spent the last couple of weeks going round other local leisure centres trying out different fitness classes and I have to say that there isn't anything out there that would beat Calne.Which in a way makes me even more depressed as if these other centres are surviving and Calne didn't then it goes to show just how much disinvestment Calne suffered and how it seems even more likely that there was a positive strategy to close Calne. Athena representatives stated that there seemed to be no political will to keep Calne open. How dare NWDC behave like this? - when they should be welcoming possible investors with open arms as any major development of leisure facilities would enhance the whole area and support what NWDC should be trying to achieve.I hope to see you all at the Calne Town Council meeting tomorrow night.

Like the above, I too am happy to add to Mick’s request for support to help keep WHLC going.

I wrote to the Town Clerk, Mrs Kingdon, at Calne Town Council. It would seem that CTC view NWDC as “owners of the White Horse Leisure Centre and the provider of leisure facilities in the District” as the main point of contact and through which any proposals that Athena have should be put. She states that “it is possible, but unlikely, that the Town Council will be consulted formally on any proposals from Athena Leisure”.

Although, and more positively, the letter also reiterates that CTC have requested a two month hold on decommissioning, a possible renegotiation of Beversbrook Community Centre funds and a ‘demand’ that NWDC includes CTC ‘at all stages’ in discussion on leisure provision in the District, I am still left with the feeling that CTC and NWDC are presenting false barriers to a serious review of what Athena actually propose. This is a pity as many other issues of closure of the original operational structure are now resolved. I also suggested that a large proportion of Council Tax could be waived, in order to get a better solution in place, in the shorter term.

It was helpful to hear above from J Brennan, on behalf of Athena. I hope that they can present a good case, though CTC would appear to be only the first step, as NWLC hold the main purse strings and the land on which WHLC sits.

On a separate Gazette&Herald thread ‘Centre's future looking bright’ it looks like NWLC hands-off funding of Cricklade under the KLIC approach is paying off. It may be that this is insufficient in the long term and only time will tell but it does show what a fresh approach and a proportionate resource can do. For NWLC, over the longer term, it may be good to have new approaches even if these would genuinely benefit from rationalisation over time. If a proposed ‘new facility’ were ever to emerge NWDC should feel more confident of any decision from having two competing service providers.

I hope Athena can bring some fresh thinking, too. I know that my pool in which I learnt has had a very successful (‘award-winning’) makeover (http://www.robinsonpool.bedford.gov.uk/Tour/tour.htm). Although a much bigger pool and a bigger town, it is older (c 1969) but key features are two ‘upgrades’ and planned maintenance (to 2026!). The former isolated café has been moved downstairs and is now a key focal social area and the profitable gym/keep fit area enlarged into that former space. It has made quite a difference and shows what can be done to change the perceptions of the centre with townsfolk. Likewise, some of the scheduling (and sadly some prices) may also have to change.

Athena will have their work cut out convincing the CTC/NWDC of the merits of what they propose, but if they can show what they can do with the monies they are requesting and offer good management of risk for major items such as the boilers, then it may well be worth a punt and it is surely beholden on the Councils to drop any prior prejudices and take on board a serious appraisal of what is proposed.

Does anybody know if tonight’s meeting is public (to observe at least) and what time it is on (6:45 for 7pm)?

Dear Athena here is another heartfelt message of support.
i have sent emails to all my representatives calne ,district ,county,and parliament .
And i have started splitting my monthly council tax payments into 5/6 and 1/6 componants . so i will either have an open swimming pool or a 1/6th refund from my council tax . they didnt reply again .surprise surprise .
i to have tried to find alternatives , and the most useless is the olympiad .
who allowed them to close a big open air pool and replace it with a play pool ? and how much is still owed on its construction ?
Please dont give up athena , but be careful they are slippery our local politicos .

Message for Philip Guest.
I've been in touch with Cllr.Ellie Bland and she has confirmed that tonight's meeting is 7pm, so getting there for 6.45pm sounds a good idea. The leisure centre issue isn't top of the agenda this time, but I still intend to be there at the start.