Charteris Boarded Up but Campaign Goes On

Brent Council lost no time in following through Sue Harper's promise that Charteris Sports Centre would close 'in the near future' after she had rejected the Save Charteris Campaign's proposal to run it as a community venture. Campaigners expected it to close on Friday April 1st but in fact the council boarded it up on Thursday.

Meanwhile the determined supporters of the Centre haven;'t given up and this message was pasted on their Facebook Page:

Brent Council has rejected the Business Plan put forward by the Save the Charteris Campaign Group and therefore the centre will close on Friday 1st April (how appropriate).

Instead of trying to work in partnership and seeing the bigger picture (a Business Plan) of what we are trying to achieve, Brent has focused on every minor detail of our capability to run the centre – details that can only be fully covered in weeks rather than the days we’ve had to content with.

We have a viable business model approved by the London Marathon Trust. We have the full support of the GLA. We now also have written financial commitments from Funding bodies.

We are going to answer the Council on each of their points and prove to them we can run the centre – better than they can.

We will update you shortly with next steps, how we will move into the next stage of the campaign to keep the Charteris open and how you can all get involved.