As agreed at our well attended
> meeting last week we are going to meet outside Ladywell
> Arena at 11am next Saturday to publicise our campaign to
> keep the Arena for public use.
>
> Having studied the tender documents and the original
> conditions which Sports England granted Lewisham Council the
> funding for the Arena in 1997 in some detail my opinion is
> there are little or no safeguards for continued public
> access and the future viability of the Arena after October
> 2012. Any "Community Group" that successfully bids to take
> over the Management on a 30 year lease (with a break clause
> after 10 years) has to pay Lewisham Council £21,000 pa
> although at present the Arena makes a loss which has
> increased despite increases in users and revenues in the
> last 3 financial years.
>
> In order to allow the "community group" to break even or
> make a profit they are given freedom to run the place on
> commercial lines, and choose their opening hours and pricing
> structure. There is no mention of concessions to certain
> users being maintained such as free access for pensioners or
> reduced fees for Lewisham Passport holder cards.
>
> Priority is given to Olympic training in 2012 and there is
> no commitment for the gym to exist after 2012
>
> I will be expressing the Action Groups concern to Sports
> England as well as Lewisham Council: officers and
> Councillors.
>
> Bids close tomorrow on March 7th and I will be requesting
> Lewisham Council for details of who has bid for the lease
> later this week.
>
> As Lewisham do not appear to be prepared to subsidise the
> cost of running the Arena by a relatively small sum it
> remains to be seen what they will do if no organisation
> makes a bid they consider meets their conditions.Will they
> offer it to a private company?
> .
>
>PLEASE COME TO THE ARENA AT 11AM ON SATURDAY 12TH MARCH AND BRING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
>
>
G