As most people are aware Reigate & Banstead Borough Council are intent on closing Banstead leisure Center but they have found enough money (£4.3M) to build another Leisure Center which will not have a pool but a large sports hall . People who want to retain the pool have filled in questionnaires and petitions but the council are not listening. In fact they have done their own questionnaire which had questions in it like “which would you prefer – to keep the pool or to spend money on the elderly?”

They are also being extremely hypocritical when they complain that a lot of people from outside the borough use the facilities at Banstead. We will have to go outside the borough if our pool closes.

The council also plane to close the local library at Tattenham Corner.

I have a suggestion.

Why don’t the council use some of the money allocated for the new center to refurb the old one (this has been well discussed before) and to build a new sports hall at the old center. If it was made 2 stories the library could occupy the top floor. There is plenty of land at the site in Merland Rise and 480, 420 and 460 bus routes service this area. There is also plentiful free car parking. Then the council could sell the old library site at Tattenham Corner for building purposes which would pay for some of the refurbishment. This is what has happened at Horley.

It will be interesting to see what other people, especially the council, think of this idea.

Gill Luff Based on information supplied by .