Save our gym club

7:40am Thursday 3rd January 2013 in News

Save our gym club Save our gym club

CHILDREN who use a popular gym club in Padgate are pleading for their home to be saved with a funding row threatening to close it.

Gym Starz is used by hundreds of youngsters at Lysander High School, on Insall Road, which has now opened as the University Academy Warrington.

The University of Chester Academies Trust, which sponsors Warrington’s latest academy, has confirmed it will not pay for it because the class is not ‘financially viable’.

Warrington Borough Council currently funds the club but is only contracted to do so until March, with no new agreement yet in place.

Lisa Goodwin, aged 35, of Newton Grove, Fearnhead, is club welfare officer at Gym Starz which offers gym and trampolining classes for boys and girls three days a week.

Coaches have been given redundancy notices and she fears for its future.

“You are talking about a large number of children that are going to give up the only activity that they do,” said Mrs Goodwin.

“They are all really good kids and being part of the club is paramount to that.

“If they are not part of that community they could go off the rails.”

Ian Johnson, chairman of Poulton with Fearnhead Parish Council, is calling for it to stay in the area and criticised a lack of consultation with the community.

He said: “This area has been battling problems from the past and things are relatively upbeat.

“There are lots of things going on in the community and we want to maintain that, not lose anything.

“We will do whatever we can to help the group stay in the area.

“We would certainly be critical of the communication around this.”

Clr Geoff Settle (Poulton North LAB) agreed and said: “I strongly believe that the club should remain at Lysander.

“With so many local youngsters benefitting from the facilities, friendship and skills to take this out of the community would leave a gaping sporting hole in the area.”

A council spokesman said it will ‘ensure’ the club continues but could not confirm at what location or for how long.

Alison Sherman, head teacher at UAW, said it is ‘highly likely’ Gym Starz will continue at the academy.

She said: “It is now highly likely that the council will commission the academy to run these clubs and I am discussing the details of such an arrangement with the local authority.

“Both the academy and the local authority wish to see these clubs continue to run at the school.”

Comments(10)

Nick Tessla says...
11:27am Thu 3 Jan 13

I am afraid that this rather sounds like Labour up to their usual tricks - using an unrelated situation to try and score party political points a policy they are against - in this case academy schools which they (and indeed the lib-dems) do not want.


If the Labour junta does not continue supporting this group then it would appear to be a disgraceful case of putting political point scoring ahead of the electorate.


Fortunatey , from what Mrs Sherman says it seems likely that funding will continue and - not that Labour would avoid making a political issue out of it anyway.

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SAC_in_Warrington says...
11:30am Thu 3 Jan 13

I believe that the WBC contribution is basically seed-corn funding i.e. is provided to establish a community facility which should then become self funding at a later stage, usually in the first 2 or 3 years. At the end or preferably before the end of the seed-funding the committee running the facility should by then have applied for continuation funding, which may include in this case, parental contributions, funds from local or national grant making trusts; like Children in Need, The National Lottery, Warrington Charities Trust and others. There is also a possibility that a local or national business may provide sponsorship if they are contacted. If they have not done this, then it is more difficult playing catch up. I know from experience.

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Geoff Settle says...
8:05am Sat 5 Jan 13

I’d just like to thank Mathew Hobbs for writing the above piece for Gymstarz, they have received two very good responses and support.

The reason I got involved is not just because I am their local councillor and therefore it is my role to do so but because my daughter started her gymnastics career with the club and 15 years ago.

She still loves and is involved in the sport. I have seen what it has given her and what she has given back as a coach and it is well worth the efforts of Dad’s taxi to ferry her around.

I want to see the local children have the opportunity of similar experiences.

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SAC_in_Warrington says...
9:59am Sat 5 Jan 13

Does this group have a management committee?

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Geoff Settle says...
12:00pm Sat 5 Jan 13

I think that I can say they have a small committee and that one of the key members used to work for the council. This person has now been transferred.

As part of the way forward/transition the committee structure, constitution etc need to be reviwed and revisited so that they can stand on their own two feet. If you have any ideas/suggestions you can send me an email and I will be happy to pass it on to the club.

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yazhoo1 says...
5:12pm Sat 5 Jan 13

Geoff, can your council be any more of a disgrace? I agree well done to Matthew Hobbs.... well done to him for exposing some of the shabby treatment you and your Labour colleagues dish out to ordinary people like this. Serving redundancy notices over Xmas/New Year is low, even for Terry O'Neill's council.

Even your own party are starting to get fed up now, just look at the way Ian Johnson (Labour) says he is "critical of the communication around this". I assume you agree? There is only one party to blame for the bad communication..... Warrington Borough Council.

Just answer one question for us Geoff please.... when you spoke about this issue as part of the discussion below the letter from your colleague Billy Lines Rowlands, did you know that these coaches were going to get redundancy notices? A simple yes or no will do.

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SAC_in_Warrington says...
6:25pm Sat 5 Jan 13

Geoff Settle wrote:
I think that I can say they have a small committee and that one of the key members used to work for the council. This person has now been transferred.

As part of the way forward/transition the committee structure, constitution etc need to be reviwed and revisited so that they can stand on their own two feet. If you have any ideas/suggestions you can send me an email and I will be happy to pass it on to the club.
My advice is the same is i suggested earlier. That being as follows:
the committee running the facility should have applied for continuation funding, which may include in this case, parental contributions, funds from local or national grant making trusts; like Children in Need, The National Lottery, Warrington Charities Trust and others. There is also a possibility that a local or national business may provide sponsorship if they are contacted. If they have not done this, then it is more difficult playing catch up. I know from experience.

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Geoff Settle says...
8:27pm Sat 5 Jan 13

As a result of the coverage, 2 offers of help emerged yesterday that the club can explore. To my knowledge no Gymnastic Coaches have been made redundant during the transfer process. My clear focus is to help the club but if I start becoming the focus then that defeats the objective and won't help them either. I hope that people respect this.

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yazhoo1 says...
9:09pm Sat 5 Jan 13

Sorry Geoff, but that is dodging the question and dodging your responsibility. Labour hypocrisy is also the issue here.

You were the first person to air this issue on this website below the letter from your colleague Billy Lines Rowlands. We thought you were acting in good faith (that is what you implied) but this article shows another side to the story.

The Labour council is responsible for the threat hanging over this club. You didnt mention that and wouldn't answer when you were asked who was withdrawing the funding. Now we know.

This is typical of the way Labour campaign in this town and it stinks. If you are sincere when you say you want to do all you can for this service (and I believe you are), then surely you can't remain a Labour councillor? After all, you would be fighting your own council.

I am afraid you cant help but be the focus of this story, Geoff. After all, we rightly want to know what our elected councillors are going to do about things. The public aren't going to stand for the smoke and mirrors tactic of Labour councillors saying they are against cuts when it is THEIR council forcing the cuts on us. May 2014 will prove very interesting if things carry on that way.

So Geoff, did you know about the people receiving redundancies? A yes or no should tell us all we need to know ;)

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Geoff Settle says...
10:19pm Sat 5 Jan 13

I told you that the answers to your questions would be in the letter I wrote. and it was.
The letter wasn't published and I have no control over that but the answer to your question is in Matt's article.
You can draw whatever conclusions, accusation, inferences etc etc you want till you are blue in the face.
I reeat the focus of the campaign is to help the youngsters of my ward keep their club going simples as Marc Cavendish says.

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