Finishing line looms for Arun District Council’s draft leisure strategy

Consultants, campaign groups, town and parish councils, Arun’s cabinet and a working group of councillors have all had their say on the proposed new leisure strategy for the district, but the final decisions will be made by Arun’s full council at its meeting on March 20.

When the vision for Arun’s leisure facilities was unveiled in the autumn, it was hailed as an exciting, ambitious blueprint for sporting, leisure and cultural opportunities fit for the 21st century.

Consultants Colliers International painted an attractive picture of a new leisure centre for Littlehampton, a hotel, restaurant and water play area on the seafront and a new town centre cinema with two or three screens.

But within weeks the draft leisure strategy had run into heavy water, as people realised that the new attractions being dangled before them would actually result in the loss of cherished community assets such as the Windmill Entertainment Centre and Littlehampton Swimming and Sports Centre.

The public outcry, particularly over the future of the Windmill, did result in the venue being given, at least, a stay of execution, with amateur theatre groups continuing to use the venue for the time.

However, it was unable to prevent the end of film shows, with Quartet the last to be screened on a sad Valentine’s Day for movie lovers.

Inspire Leisure, the charitable trust set up to run Arun’s leisure services a few years ago, said it could no longer afford to show films following a cut in its funding from the council.

Tetchy stand-off

Although the lack of a digital projector was not cited as the reason for the cinema operation finishing, the equipment became the focus of a tetchy stand-off between the two organisations, with Inspire claiming that Arun would not even share the cost of a projector on a 50/50 basis, while Arun cabinet member Paul Dendle hinted that the trust could easily afford to buy £15,000 worth of second-hand kit by dipping into its £300,000 reserves.

For the record, Arun’s own reserves currently stand at £12.5m, although few of the near-5,000 people who signed a petition calling for a digital projector to be purchased, somehow, would have known that.

For the full story, see Thursday’s Gazette (February 21).