Save Victoria Baths!

No apologies for the local East Midlands flavour of the blog this week - there are a lot of things going on around here!

Nottingham City Council is currently coming under pressure from workers and service users in a variety of areas. One is the issue of uniforms for library staff that I mentioned in my 17th February blog entry - the issue is covered in this Indymedia post.

A campaign is also being fought to oppose the City Council's plan to close Victoria Baths. The City Council Executive Board meet on Tuesday 18th March and if they vote to close the Victoria Leisure Centre it could be shut down by the end of Easter.

The campaign website is http://www.savevictoriabaths.org.uk/

Please support the campaign by signing the petition, writing to your councillors, joining the mailing list and attending the public demonstration on Tuesday 18 March 2008 at 1.30pm in Market Square.

Nottingham City Council announced their proposal to close Victoria Leisure Centre on Friday 8 February. On Tuesday 19 February the Council's Executive board voted for the closure of the Leisure Centre in principle. They have now allowed for a month long period of consultation with local residents and Leisure Centre users before they meet again to make a final decision on about its fate on Tuesday 18 March 2008.

Jon Collins, Leader of the Council assured us that this consultation period is not a ‘façade’, as some people have speculated, and that they are a 'listening council' who will take our views into consideration when making their final decision. The land has not already been sold and it is not a foregone conclusion that the Leisure Centre will close!

We cannot stress enough the importance of making your views known to the Council between now and Tuesday 18 March 2008, to help us save our much loved Leisure Centre!

Remember that Nottingham City Council tried to close Victoria Leisure Centre once before in 2000 and that a campaign run by local residents and Leisure Centre users successfully managed to convince the Council to keep it open. We’ve done it once before and we can do it again, but only with your help!