Star date: 30th March 2011

SAVE BROUGHTON REC CENTRE
Thursday 31st March 5:30-6:30pm
Outside Broughton Rec
Camp Street, M7 1ZT

Broughton Against The Cuts has called a demo tomorrow to draw attention to the possible closure of Broughton Fit City by Salford Council as part of its £40 spending cuts.

Broughton Rec is right in the middle of the `New Broughton' regeneration area which has had almost £38million of public money spent on the Countryside Properties led development. 

Full story here….

While Salford Council could find £857,000 of unsupported borrowing last year for a New Broughton `rescue package', there is no rescue in sight from the Council for Broughton Fit City, known as Broughton Rec.

Altogether, around £38million of public money has gone to finance the Countryside Properties led development of Lower Broughton. But now Salford City Council wants to offload the Rec as part of its £40million cuts to local spending. Campaigners want to see the Rec saved for its health benefits to the local community.

"There's an historical reason why Salford has Fit Cities" says Paul Costello, a local resident and regular user of the Rec "It was because we needed to provide exercise opportunities for people and it's fantastically used by all sorts of organisations, from mental health groups to five-a-side teams. And its climbing wall is a legend amongst climbers who say they don't build them that well any more.

"We don't know if it's closing but there's a possibility, and we're saying we want it to stay open" he adds "I don't believe that the Council wants to close it but whether it can do anything is another matter."

At last week's East Salford Community Committee meeting Council Leader John Merry disclosed that there was the possibility of Broughton Database, which is housed in the Rec, taking the building over.

"We have to find savings somewhere" John Merry told the meeting "I can assure people that we're working flat out with Broughton Database to get funding."

Broughton Database is keen on taking over the Rec to save it for the community.

"Following an extremely positive meeting on 28th February with Councillor John Merry and Andy Howitt, who is responsible for Culture and Leisure, Broughton Database are currently in discussions with the Council regarding the transfer of Broughton Leisure Centre in order to keep the building open and create opportunities for local people" says Christine Brett, of Broughton Database (HBHG Development Trust)
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"Some activities will be transferring to Broughton Pool and we are awaiting all the information about the building from the Council in order to put together our proposal" she adds "Once we have all the details we will be consulting with other users, groups and most importantly, the community to ensure the combination of fitness, well-being and learning provision meets community need."

In the meantime, tomorrow's demonstration has been called to show the strength of support to keep Broughton Rec open.

"I think it's disgusting that they're thinking of closing the Rec as it's always been well used" says local resident Madge Kelly "I think Countryside Properties just wants rid of it. They've spent millions down here but they're taking everything away from the children, they'll have nowhere to go."

Anyone wanting to support the Broughton Database proposal can vote for its grant application to do a community consultation and business plan on the Co-op Join the Revolution website. Click here and vote by clicking on 'View All Revolutions', then select 'Benefiting the Community' and projects in the North of England.

Then join SAVE BROUGHTON REC CENTRE demo
Thursday 31st March 5:30-6:30pm
Outside Broughton Rec
Camp Street, M7 1ZT