FURTHER to the letter from Keith Evans entitled ‘Keep Our Leisure Centres Open’ we would like to respond to some of the points which he raises, and set out our reply below.

Thanks to Mr Evans for raising his concerns, as we do welcome comments and feedback. We’re currently encouraging people to let us know what they think about our Stretford Masterplan proposals by completing a survey.

A desire to revitalise Stretford, for the benefit of local people, is at the heart of the council’s plans. We want as many people as possible from the local community to get involved and tell us what they think, so their views can help shape this project. You can have your say by completing our survey http://www.trafford.gov.uk/stretfordmasterplan You can also come along to one of the public events that we’re holding throughout November and December.

Trafford Council’s Executive recently approved a proposal to spend £6.4million upgrading Urmston Leisure Centre as part of wider investment to improve leisure facilities in the Borough, which will total in the region of £30m . This follows an extensive review of leisure provision and commercial opportunities as part of an overarching ‘Physical Activity Vision’ for Trafford.

The council, along with Trafford Leisure and other key partners, believe it is imperative to secure improved health and wellbeing outcomes, and one way of doing this is via increased levels of physical activity. Our ambition in Trafford is for every resident to become more active because we know it has immeasurable benefits to people’s health and wellbeing.

No date has been given for the closure of George H Carnall Leisure Centre, and the intention is to keep it open until improvements are complete at nearby Urmston Leisure Centre.

Mr Evans suggests that we are planning to ‘close Stretford Leisure Centre’ and yet the proposals include a new state-of-the-art leisure centre for Stretford, the proposed location being at the UA92 campus on Talbot Road.

To be clear, this will be publicly-owned and run by Trafford Leisure, and accessible to all the community, as well as having improved facilities.

There is no proposal to close Stretford Library, however if people feel they would prefer to see it relocated, we would be interested to hear that.

The council meeting Mr Evans talks about on Wednesday, October 11 was streamed live. All council meetings are streamed via the Trafford website. Any residents who are unable to attend a particular meeting, but would like to observe, can do so by visiting https://trafford.public-i.tv/core/portal/home where meetings can be viewed retrospectively for up to six months.

We do our best as a council to share our plans as soon as we are able. All the decisions made by our Executive Committee, plus its forward plans are available at https://democratic.trafford.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=141

Trafford Council