Bob Seely has written to the Chief Executive of Sport England – the non-departmental public body responsible for community sport – in support of the plans for the Smallbrook Ice & Leisure Centre.
Bob’s letter follows the recent submission of comments from Sport England restating their objection to the proposals, despite a detailed ‘Benefit Case’ being put forward by the applicant.
The MP has asked for representatives of the national body to visit the Island in the coming weeks, ahead of the likely determination of the application at the end of November. He has also provided Sport England with clarification – as provided by Ryde School, the owners of the land – in relation to how the location had only been used as a playing pitch on a very short-term, temporary basis back in 2015. Bob’s letter explains that it would therefore not be right to consider the potential use of this land for the new sports facility as constituting the loss of a playing pitch.
In his letter, Bob says:
“I can appreciate that Sport England is rightly focused on protecting and enhancing sport facilities, which is why a cautious approach has been adopted in relation to these proposals. But given the information I have set out, I hope that their stance can now be revisited.”
He also explained in his letter that he had sought (since first being elected in 2017) to address the situation of the Island’s longstanding ice rink on Ryde seafront being closed by the property’s owners, but that this has not yet been resolved – and therefore the proposals for a replacement facility were very welcome.
Due to the dissolution of Parliament (resulting in Bob no longer being an MP), he has asked Sport England to contact the Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Dave Stewart, in response.
A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.
Of course Seeley will back the new plans. All his mates will benefit from the construction.
So sad nothing could have been done to restart the esplanade Ice Rink. What a weird world we live in!
If you look in to, efforts to revive the old rink have not stopped, but, AEW will not budge on there position!
aew are fools – the place will rot to nothing and the council will force the issue of a dilapidated and decaying building blighting the tourist seafront and affect the economy under its existing powers.
That is a ridiculous thing to say. How can you deny an exiting opportunity especially for the younger generation. Plenty of opportunities. The building on the seafront should be converted into a ten pin bowling alley with refreshments, something for the holiday people and tourist. Not a leisure centre, it isn’t financially viable. Trust us. We have the best intentions.
@anony
clearly you do not have the best intentions- there is a bowling alley next door – we do not need another one.
Top bloke .
AEW are wanting more money than that rink is worth. They never upgraded any work that needed doing. By having this new full sized Olympic pad, the ice hockey team, figure skaters have better practice on the right size pad for competitions and games rather than the small pathetic thing on the front.
the amount aew are asking equates to the full rental revenue they were expecting for the next 20 years.
I cannot for the life of me, understand why Sport England would object. There are ample playing fields for goodness sake, with half of them not being used at all. [removed]. Come on surely there are better places for a playing field. The new leisure centre is exciting for the community and people who live on the island. Don’t be silly.
It’s nothing to do with Smallbrook stadium and the many different sports clubs that use it.
There is no site access, there has been sort played on the land football, hockey and of course it has hosted parking for festivals and scooter rally – which will be lost to the island
Plenty of places for festivals and rallies on the island. Don’t be silly. Actually, there a better places, to be honest. It is not the end of the world. We have to be realistic about this. There are hundreds being denied activities on a daily basis. Your festival happens once a year.
The Table Tennis Centre is thriving not failing.
[removed]
From your views, it appears that you are not familiar with what is at Smallbrook. It is far from an empty shell being home to the Wight Warriors speedway team, also a very successful speedway training school giving people of all ages the chance to ride speedway and which has achieved its stated objective to find and develop the first island born speedway rider capable of riding in the National League, Ryde Taxis, the Metro Gym, the Premier Lounge function room and bar, Ryde Cavaliers Cricket Club, the IOW Table Tennis Association, Wight Nitro remote car club, the IOW Hockey club and the “field” in the middle of the track is home to Ryde Saints FC who have invested heavily in drainage to try and get a pitch which is playable most weeks of the year. The stadium also hosts several rallies each year, the number of which is growing and has seen festivals staged there in recent years. Most of the above activities are hindered by the lack of a public transport service something which will hinder the ice rink and leisure centre and for clarity, the development is not within the confines of the stadium, although access through it will be required for which the development will pay nothing towards the upkeep of the road structure, lighting, additional parking etc.
We need to ensure that there is no way public funds add to the prospectus of RYde School’s sports department or any public money, should this go ahead, are paid to RYde School Construction. Wasn’t the land originally owned by the council / leased from?
A proper analysis should be done to ensure that any affect on other tennis clubs, climbing areas, or the Potential return of the seafront Rink is truly taken into consideration, not to mention the access to the area – which I don’t believe is possible without going over other’s land. Maybe compulsory purchase ?
Does Bob’s kids go to Ryde School ?
So on further scrutiny, we find that whilst Ryde School have very been economical with the truth and careful with their wording, in his haste to get his support behind this project before he became unemployed amd before it went before the Planning Committee, Mr Seely forgot to check the facts provided to him were correct. Google maps shows an image from 2016 or 2107 when Ryde Saints youth teams were playing there which is on the least well drained and most undulating part of the field however where the rounders pitches were marked out, it is flat. About 2011 drainage was installed to allow Ryde School to play rugby there which they did successfuly until a strong wind destroyed one of the rugby posts and was never replaced. On inspection today no rabbit holes were found and had it not been for the grass not being cut and rolled it would have been satisfactory for football or rugby to be played on it unlike a lot of pitches on the island today after recent heavy rain. Somebody is not telling the truth but pictures don’t lie and good local knowledge does support the pictures!!
Best bit of the story : Bob no longer being an MP.
Really, do you have to be so rude?
Who ever owns the current ice rink knows the millions they are sat on… and thats not from ice rink memberships or team fees.
They can obviously bull doze the site and build probably the best coastal flats/apartments on the whole of the isle of wight,it already offers a car park,town facilities and coastal protection.
We know longer live in the 90s and neither do developers
@dom
there were plans to build a hotel there at one point – just one problem – Hovertravel next door – who will want to stay in a hotel next door to that racket seven days a week. There will be no flats there – again the racket from the Hover will make them unwanted.