Mal Posted December 27, 2024 Report Posted December 27, 2024 Good to see the new PlayZone at West Lea getting a mention and still shenanigans behind that! I was contacted by a friend who told me about these PlayZones and the fact that Northumberland were to get 12. No one seemed to know about this Sport England project. When I looked into it I was dismayed but not entirely shocked to see Bedlington wasn’t down to get one. I found out who was in charge and got on the phone! I was told I would need to satisfy a load of conditions to get us included. I got a list of those conditions and went through them one by one bringing in user groups, management group, community consultation and land ownership. The next phone call was met with stunned silence for a while but eventually we were taken seriously and not only did we become included in the Playzone project, because of the work I had done, we became the leading site for the first of these PlayZones. Have to say I couldn’t have done this myself without the help of people who were as fired up as I was about it and could see the potential, so many thinks for all the help. I think the officers were pleasantly surprised too with all this community buy in and the fact that whatever problems they threw our way were overcome. We have had to do specific interviews and eventually held a public consultation at Netherton Club. Next I was told the other Bedlington Councillors would have to back it, why Im not really sure because until that point no one else had been involved. Anyway a meeting was pulled together and other officers who were in charge of the likes of playing fields and green spaces attended. I sat at that meeting and said nothing for about 15 minutes while others said they wanted this in their wards, must have thought it was an early Xmas present. The suggestions were Gallagher Park, Dr Pit Park and the Town Centre. I was a bit taken aback given all the work I and others had put in, but hey ho. I was eventually ask what my feelings were as I had played no part in this meeting so far. I said I will explain why West Lea is the only place its going! Gallagher Park, I asked the officers who oversee it if they were going to do the work and put up the finance needed, they said no they couldn’t, strike one! Dr Pit Park, I said we all know the problems down there and this wouldn’t last 5 minutes, strike two! Town Centre, I said if this does go to the Town Centre Im walking away because this will be seen as the NCC contribution to the whole of Bedlington as far as leisure provision goes and while other Towns around see £20 odd million new sports centres we get £200K. It will be a PR disaster, strike three! The only one that stacks up and has done any work on the project, by the way, is my proposal for West Lea! One of the councillors said he would back my proposal if I backed his call for him getting the next one. I replied saying that is the difference between us, if this was your proposal I would be backing you unequivocally for the simple reason that it’s a substantial amount of funding coming into leisure provision in Bedlington! So West Lea it is! Now I have to say this is around £250K’s worth of investment into a fairly small scale leisure project but welcomed none the less. Should be getting started early in the New Year and hopefully opened for Easter. The planning permission has gone in. I’m even happier to see the likes of Ladies Netball getting behind it as future users. It’s about getting a bit of provision for the likes of new and underrepresented groups to use and enjoy so if anyone wants to start up a sporting group, say tennis, basketball etc. please get in touch. There is football provision already and I hope to see ladies soccer as well as youth soccer development working there and I’m sure there will be given the people behind that. (If anyone wants to start an over 50’s walking football club I’m up for it!)
Recommended Posts
Create a free account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now