Local MP, Anna Sabine launches campaign to support Frome Leisure Centre
Local MP, Anna Sabine launches campaign to support Frome Leisure Centre
News has emerged this week that Fusion, who are responsible for the running of multiple leisure centres across Somerset, including Frome, has fallen into administration. The news comes after years of poor maintenance and problems in the leisure centre, resulting in increasingly unreliable services for local residents.
Anna Sabine MP for Frome and East Somerset has repeatedly highlighted the need for elements of the leisure centre to be fixed - from broken boilers, to unusable changing rooms - and entered into multiple discussions with Fusion’s management as well as Somerset Council. She says, she is now “outraged” that it has come to this point.
“Fusion have been responsible for a very variable service for Frome residents for years, with constant complaints about the pool, changing rooms, outside courts, squash courts and gym, whilst also failing to compensate paying members for their lost payments.
I am outraged that it has come to this point, and that once again residents of Frome will be left suffering. The knock-on effect for residents, children learning to swim, and Frome College students who use the facilities will be massive, and quick action needs to be taken to mitigate the fallout from this”
Pointing to students at Frome College, who will lose their access to PE class, and importantly A-Level students studying sport science, Anna said this is a serious issue that has the potential to derail education as well as health and wellbeing.
Somerset Council have announced they will step in to provide funding in order to keep the centre open until the Summer, with the intention of finding another suitable operator in that time, to take over the contract.
“It’s brilliant that Somerset Council have recognised the need for immediate action to keep the doors open, but the prospects of the leisure centre remains unclear. We must take serious measures to ensure public entities like this are saved and safeguarded for the future”.
Councillor Adam Boyden added:
“Frome Leisure Centre is so important for the community. It’s where children learn to swim, people young and old get and keep fit and provides a space to access sports like badminton and squash, hockey and football; its a place for the whole community, and a vital facility for Frome and the surrounding area,
Having a new operator in the near future is also a great opportunity to address the recent issues and problems people have been reporting, so I look forward to helping, with Anna, the community to raise its voice and ensure the future of our local leisure centre”.
Anna has launched a petition for us, as a town, to show our support for the leisure centre and what it means for our community.
Sign your name to the petition via Anna’s website.
https://www.anna4fes.uk/campaigns/support-frome-leisure-centre