SPORT ENGLAND LEAVES LADYWOOD WITHSINKING FEELING

11-10-2006

Sport England have goofed again. After doing a secret deal to concrete over most of Ravenhurst Playing Fields, they're tellingthe residents of Ladywood they don't need a new swimming pool, because there's already a private health centre nearby.

Although Ladywood now encompasses “city living” apartments, anyone who knows the area will appreciate that it still figures high on the list on any deprivation index.

Unemployment is roughly twice the Birmingham average, and access to sports facilities is limited. There is a leisure centre, but safeplay areas are at a premium,andthe popular local swimming pool was closed years ago.

Residents have been promised for years that a replacement would one day be provided, but now Sport England is refusing to offer funding say that the fitness club at nearby Brindley Place has a pool they can use.

Indeed it does, but its doubtful whether many Ladywood residents can afford to go there, as membership costs around £40 per month.

It does beg the question of what Sport England and other quangos are actually for, and whose interests they represent.

As The Stirrer recently revealed, one of their local officials worked up an agreement with the house-builder Wimpey which could lead to the destruction of most of Ravenhurst Playing Fields in Harborne.

And we also broke the story a couple of months ago that another quango English Heritage was backing the controversial AE Harris planning application in the Jewellery Quarter, which many residents said woud have marked the beginning of the end for this historic area.