These thoughts will be the ‘focal-point’ of the on-line community petition that we are preparing against the closure, which we hope will make our council change their minds.

“Battersea Sports Centre is not just a sports facility that entices people from far and wide to participate in their desired sport and exercise classes.   Sports as varied as badminton, taekwando, speed-skating, boxing and football.  Exercise classes for all ages, shapes and sizes.

The Sports Centre is also regarded as a community centre that provides local residents with various resources such as a school holiday and term-time crèche, sex education seminars for the under 18’s – and, perhaps even more importantly, it is somewhere for the locals kids to hang out.  

In an area that is considered to suffer from high levels of street crime, is it then wise to close down the heart of the community and replace it with so-called affordable housing?  Whilst the local residents acknowledge that housing is required, the community believe that Battersea Sports Centre is a site that should remain untouched. The facility is not a short-term fix – it will continue to benefit the generations to come and this should be encouraged, not destroyed. 

Please show your support and sign our petition to stop the destruction of yet another community that so desperately needs to retain the focal point of the area in which it resides.  

The petition calls upon Wandsworth Council to stop the redevelopment of the Battersea Sports Centre site.”

Please contact http://thewandsworthvoice.com for additional information on the current proposals and details of  the on-line petition