Gurnell Campaigners Look To Mayor for Support
Hoping he will intervene as he did to save a leisure centre in Crystal Palace
Save Gurnell wants mayor to support renovatin. Picture: Save Gurnell
The Save Gurnell campaign group is hoping to get Sadiq Khan to intervene to have the leisure centre reopened.
It believes that the Mayor of London might see the similarities between the closure of Gurnell Leisure Centre and the National Sports Centre in Crystal Palace of which the Mayor has recently agreed to help fund renovation.
The public outcry over the loss of the Crystal Palace facility got a response in November last year after 42,000 people signed a petition with Sadiq Khan agreeing to support the repair works.
Campaigners point out that the two cases are very similar with both centres closing in March 2020 and not reopening due to the cost of getting them back up to standard.
Originally it was intended that a new leisure centre at Gurnell would be replaced by one that would have been part funded by a massive housing scheme at the site but this failed to get planning permission last year.
Save Gurnell is aiming to get a similar number of signatures on its petition to the Mayor which over 5,000 people have already put their name to.
The Save Gurnell group says, “Gyms and leisure centres play a key role in helping people to be active and they will be crucial in our nation’s recovery from coronavirus, in addition to providing wider health, wellbeing, and community benefits. The current position is totally unacceptable.
“Since the planning application was refused in March 2021, there has been a distinct lack of communication from the new leadership team at Ealing Council - namely council Leader Cllr Peter Mason and Cabinet Member for 'Good Growth' and Portfolio holder for Gurnell Cllr Shital Manro.
“Cllr Mason has promised ‘an open, inclusive and transparent’ approach, yet there has been no meaningful update on Gurnell with talks going on behind closed doors yet again. In late 2021, Cllr Manro promised an update in the new year, yet here we are again with no news – and this is highly unlikely to be a ‘no news is good news’ scenario.”
It adds, “Please don’t let Gurnell be the next Ealing Cinema. “
The Mayor’s office was contacted for comment.
CGI of the rejected Gurnell scheme from the developer's web site
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February 8, 2022
