GLL have taken it upon themselves without any consultation to cut Polkyth Leisure Centre’s sports hall in half to create a permanent soft play area. GLL believe that the sports hall is underused and to bring in more revenue they think creating this soft play will be the answer to make better use of the space and in turn bring in more money than keeping the hall as it is now.

If this goes ahead many sports that have played regularly every week including football, netball, badminton club are not able to play anymore as they can’t play in half a hall. This affects all ages that participate in a lot of activities.

Soft play is very limited for very young children including when children are able to use it so a hall that apparently is currently underused will still be empty at many times of the day.  In fact more likely to be more empty as a result. There are already plenty of soft play areas locally, some of which are actually free of charge. It is not something St Austell is lacking. Leisure centres were built for providing sports facilities not soft play.

There are so many of us that think this change needs to be reconsidered and want to get GLL to sit up and listen to the locals who use the facility. We feel that GLL haven’t considered any other options including reducing prices and offering more/different classes when the hall is empty especially during the daytime.  They have ploughed straight into a complete change that alienates a lot of regular uses and a lot of sports. There are many other things that could be improved in the centre including opening the cafe more to bring in more revenue.

There are very few facilities for teenagers to use in the St Austell area and if GLL takes away half of the sports hall as it plans to, there will be even less. Currently 40 teenagers take part in the badminton club that hires the whole hall from 4pm until 10pm one evening a week, that’s a 6 hour slot using all 6 courts, the whole hall. They cannot do this with half a hall.

Obesity is on the rise, we are being encouraged to exercise more as the NHS can not cope but we if limit the sports facilities available how can we improve any of these things. 

Please sign this petition so that together we can try to get our voices heard and stop the changes planned.