Big news! Today the campaign received the following message from Mark Munday, Divisional Manager - Haringey for Fusion Lifestyle: Fusion’s original plans for Park Road Leisure Centre included maintaining the diving boards while also installing a moveable floor that would allow more flexible and varied use of the diving pit. When the technical restraints on doing this became clear in late 2013, we believed that moving diving to Tottenham Green would be the best option in difficult circumstances – enabling Fusion to deliver the same benefits for people in the borough as the original plans, and meeting the objectives of the partnership with Haringey Council to increase revenue and access to facilities. Fusion’s preference has always been to install a movable floor at Park Road without having to remove the diving boards. It may be that the most appropriate solution remains to move the boards to Tottenham Green or there may be another, as yet unidentified, solution. It may even be the case that no movable floor gets installed after all. But what is really important to Fusion is that whatever final decision gets made is the right one. We understand the considerable local interest in this issue and that’s why we have proposed, with the agreement of the council, to defer installation of the movable floor at Park Road for the time being and to remove this element from the current programme of works. This will allow us to look again at all of the possible technical solutions and to work further with residents’ groups and clubs to explore these possibilities in depth, under the direction of the joint council/Fusion project board. Our next step will be to meet again with the action group next Wednesday (March 12) to confirm terms of reference and the details of the associated consultation. We expect the process to take place over the next three-four months, while the rest of the programme of refurbishment works continues. If we can find a satisfactory solution, it is likely that any further works would be undertaken under a separate contract. Fusion will of course continue efforts to develop leisure programmes and activities that will help drive up use of Haringey’s leisure facilities and increase revenue to meet the aims of our partnership with the council and also contribute towards our charitable objectives. Kind Regards, Mark
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:46:21 +0000