Lichfield’s MP has revealed that further talks are taking place over the future of Friary Grange Leisure Centre.
Plans have been drawn up by Lichfield District Council to close the site in April 2020 after it claimed £2.4million was needed to bring it up to scratch.
But a petition has now been signed by thousands of residents and a public meeting has been organised for 7.30pm this evening (15th July) at Curborough Community Centre.
Conservative MP Mike Fabricant has now posted on social media that talks are taking place between council leader Cllr Doug Pullen and chief executive Diane Tilley.
Cllr Pullen has previously said that his preference would be to invest in a new centre rather than spend the money “patching up” an existing one.
Tonight?? Bit short notice isn’t it??
It’s almost as if the council doesn’t want to give people the opportunity to actually attend.
Snap: The meeting tonight has been organised by campaigners – the council meeting is on Tuesday.
I hate to sound dismissive, but the Burntwood pool is already used quite heavily and the quickest route from the Lichfield Friary to Burntwood Leisure centre is either via the Bowling Green Island or the Abnalls. In rush hour you have to choose between a dangerous rat run or a congested City Centre roundabout.
So not ideal, unless you cycle… then you’d use the Abnalls cycle route, which is where all the rat-runners go…
Ross – I stand corrected! Apologies.
Was it not last week the council were looking at ways of reucing car usage and cutting pollution?
There seems to no logic.
Close Friary Grange = more travel and less convenience.
Building more homes = more people cars and pollution.
Reducing jobs in Lichfield = more need to travel, to work outside the city
More people = harder to get a GP appointment. Greater need for local infrastructure
Reduce public transport = more car usage
Knocking businesses down = reduced money in and more money out
Actually they are panic talks in the light of the petition which the Council has to respond to under the Constitution.
Lichfield is supposed to be a city, yet it is sadly lacking facilities they are needed. Many areas have gyms and pools which are free to use. Sutton Coldfield should have had an Olympic sized pool, however when Birmingham took over it was reduced in size so that Castle Vale could have a small pool too. Derby still has open air lidos. This year I tried David Lloyd out of town facilities, quite nice however Out of town is not easy access for mobility scooter vehicles etc if we are looking at reducing car use.