Nikki Sinclaire alongside local residents will protest
outside the council house this coming Monday (August 20th).
Backed by community groups and concerned constituents, the
group are protesting against plans to close the Aston Arena, formerly known as
the Aston Villa Leisure Centre.
Birmingham City Council has earmarked the site for demolition
as a part of their Area Action Plan (AAP). The serpentine site is earmarked as
a business park for Aston which the council believe will bring employment to
the area.
Residents are angry that they have not been properly
consulted. The council claim a 20,000 person consultation has been undertaken
before these plans were agreed. However, local charity groups claim the figure
is closer to 1000, and this number is made up of statutory bodies, meaning the
number of local residents consulted is minimal.
Nikki Sinclaire MEP is backing the residents in opposing the
demolition of the sports facility,
“As a politician myself, I know how important it is to listen
to my employers, that being my constituents.
You should never ignore the will of the people, and the
people of Aston and the surrounding boroughs do not want this site removed from
the local area.
We cannot let a facility like this be bulldozed into history
Why do the local council want to diminish such an important
sporting provision? For the second city, this is shameful
Where will the Olympians of the future train? Do we not want
gold medal winners in Aston?
If the politicians won’t listen to us, then the only
solution is to go and protest on Monday and show them how much this issue means
to us. ”
Pritesh Pattni, of the Bidgley Power charity said, “We need
to save this facility for our kids. Nobody else is going to do this. We as a
community need to work together to save the Arena.
The council will never build anything of this size ever
again, so we must preserve this facility
We need the voices of the people of Aston to be heard”.
Rico Wojtulewicz, who has been working with Bob Cooper who
is the current tenant at the Aston Arena, said, “Why would Birmingham City
Council want to close the only facility of this size in the area? If Birmingham
is serious about making a bid about future commonwealth games in the future,
then we need to keep venues such as the Aston Arena”.
ENDS
