Councillors vote to close Grimsby ice rink
Protesters have been outside the Town Hall demonstrating.
Councillors have voted to close Grimsby Ice Rink.
North East Lincolnshire Council's Cabinet met this afternoon to discuss plans to shut the facility as they say it's no longer financially viable to keep it open.
Campaigners against the plans demonstrated outside Grimsby Town Hall.
Emma McCall from Grimsby Ice Hockey Club called the decision "outrageous" and now fears for the future of the whole leisure centre. She told Viking:
"The rink is situated in one of the most deprived areas of Grimsby and those people wouldn't have the money and time to travel to the next nearest facility in Hull so for a lot of people it will be the end of an era.
"We have had a hard time over the last seven years with the imminent closure constantly hanging over us and the fact that we still turn out in force just shows how strong the skating community is. We will continue in our fight to save this facility, we will not give up and there is still some steam in us left to fight this.
"Every family needs some sports facility within easy reach and shouldn't have to travel that far to use certain sports facilities. It's important to have a wide variety of sports as not every child is interested in just football and rugby for example."
Councillor Jane Hyldon-King, portfolio holder for health and wellbeing at North East Lincolnshire Council told Viking:
“In September 2014 we invested £200,000 in an ice pad at Grimsby Leisure Centre as a temporary measure after the machinery that ran the old ice rink failed.
“Setting up the temporary ice pad gave community groups, businesses and other organisations time to put forward viable proposals to take on the running of an ice rink in the borough.
“We made it clear at the time that we would fund the ice pad for two years but an ice rink wasn’t something the Council would provide in the long term.
“Not enough people have used the ice rink to cover its operating costs.
“Last month we deferred this decision to look in more detail at one of the proposals, but this would still require significant investment from the Council.
“Councillors are having to make more and more decisions like this as we face mounting pressure from budget cuts and austerity measures from central government.
“It comes at a time when adult social care funding is in crisis and councils are expected to foot the bill, we simply can’t afford to subsidise facilities that only benefit a limited number of people.
“We don’t want to see amenities taken away, but with no viable alternative put forward, I’m sorry to say we have no choice but to close it.”