ZULETA WELCOMES CAMBERWELL LEISURE CENTRE BACKING (Southwark Liberal Democrats)

Southwark Liberal Democrats <info@southwark-libdems.org.uk>

ZULETA WELCOMES CAMBERWELL LEISURE CENTRE BACKING

February 14, 2007 12:00 AM

Cllr Lorraine Zuleta, Liberal Democrat Head of Leisure on Southwark Council, has welcomed the backing that the Council has received for plans to regenerate the Camberwell Leisure Centre from local residents. The Council has also agreed to earmark any capital receipts from land around the centre for its regeneration.

At last night's meeting of the Council's Executive, residents put their case for investigation of the possibility of transforming the ailing Leisure Centre into a community hub, featuring various council and community facilities as well as leisure.

"We were delighted that there appears to be such interest in the community hub idea," said Cllr Lorraine Zuleta, Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport. "We have therefore decided to postpone any final decision on how to provide 21st century leisure facilities in Camberwell whilst these new ideas are explored."

"Camberwell Leisure Centre provides the greatest challenge of all the Borough's leisure facilities. It is very old and has suffered from 40 years of under-investment under Labour. It also sits on a very confined site and is listed inside and out. The Council cannot afford to regenerate it out of our own funds at this time and so we are exploring other ways of providing the funding. Unlike the last Labour administration, we are not content simply to kick the issue into the long grass."

"We were very interested in the ideas being put forward by the SE5 Forum and others for a community hub and have agreed to keep all options open whilst this is explored. In the meantime, we are providing up to £1.5 million capital funding to ensure that the Centre stays open with its current facilities."

"As an added show of our commitment to Camberwell regeneration, we have taken the unusual step of ring-fencing any receipts from the sale of land around the leisure centre to plough into the Leisure Centre regeneration."