Dear Mr Worthington

In response to your letter in the Messenger newspaper, are you seriously suggesting that we should be grateful to Trafford for investing £24m into its leisure centres when at the same time proposing to close George Carnall.

If you really do find it difficult to understand the cause of such concern then I strongly suggest that yourself and the rest of your committee meet with the residents of our town and hold a public debate to fully explain the reason behind it and to stop trying to tell us that these were recommendations made to safeguard a leisure centre in our area.

Trafford say that they want everybody to have to have access to facilities in each town but Flixton, Urmston and Davyhulme will be left with very limited facilities but Altrincham, Sale and Stretford will be fine thank you very much.

Trafford accepted proposals for the consolidation of leisure services at an improved Urmston Leisure Centre but those proposals will never be met because all and sundry know that Urmston does not have the capacity for to combine the two.

It doesn't appear that much thought had gone into the redevelopment of Urmston and that all Trafford were interested in was the closure of George Carnall, otherwise how can you explain that nine months after the announcement you are still trying to formulate plans for the development, could it possibly be because of the £2.1m investment you weren't sure of the figure that would be available after all the necessary maintenance work was carried out?

You say that Trafford leisure is committed to working with any clubs or residents affected by the proposed closure but that commitment will be a mystery to to everybody at George Carnall because there has been no co-operation whatsoever and all the groups and classes are actively looking for alternative venues for their chosen sport or activity and have been since the closure was announced because no matter how much you try to alter the internal layout at Urmston they all know that there will never be enough space to accommodate them.

Trafford Council says that George Carnall wasn't viable and that it was losing money so if that was the case why then are the accounts not available to view, even if that was the case you don't close a community leisure centre when it is obvious that with better management George Carnall could be a thriving successful leisure centre not only for now but for years to come and for future generations

Regards

Mike Reavy.