Bramhall High School was planning to close it's two squash courts and convert them into a Dance and Drama facility. There was a strong community feeling against this.....
We prepared a document that answered point raised by Bramhall High in their proposal. If you would like to view our Response Document please feel free to down load it here.
Squash Courts are purpose-built, unique and precious spaces. Once a Squash Court is ‘converted’ into a multi-use space, it is extremely expensive to convert it back to a Squash facility, which often means that no-one will ever play Squash there again. In contrast, you can Dance or participate in Drama in almost any multi-use space, of which there is currently more than enough availability at Bramhall Leisure Centre.
There are many regular squash players at Bramhall that as well as enjoying regular exercise also use the facilities at the centre to socialise in the friendly environment. Although in theory there are alternative squash courts, very few of them offer the same facilities:
We have received the proposal to close courts from Bramhall High's headmaster Mr John Peckham with very little notice. There was a public meeting on Monday 12th July 2004 where proposal to covert the squash courts was presented but there was no opportunity for the our response to be presented to the governors. Many Squash players turned out to raise issues with the proposal.
The buildings which comprise the Bramhall High School and Recreation Centre are there to provide for the education of the young people who attend (and are going to attend) the school. These students are entitled to the best available facilities and since the gradual release of additional capital funding since about 1999, the Governing Body has been working very hard to try to rectify some of the apalling shortfalls in the educational accommodation on site. It has been a considerable bonus for this community and others, that the facilities have been made available to the wider community through the Recreation Centre, now managed on behalf of Stockport Council by the Stockport Sports Trust. It needs to be clear, however, that without the school, none of the Recreation Centre Facilities would exist, since they simply could not recover any of the capital investment. On the other hand, there are many schools with sports and other facilities much better than ours where the community get little or no use.
The financial arrangements are that the fabric of the building is the responsibility of the Council, delgated to the school for many purposes. Income from the Recreation Centre is kept by the Sports Trust and where there is any surplus, re-invested into sports facilities across the Borough. The school receives payment for electricty and heating. Internal decoration of the Recreation Centre is the responsibility of the Trust.
The problem with the squash courts is that they are not really usable as a teaching space during the day (although they have 'stood in' for everything from changing rooms to dance studios in a crisis), which means that they are largely unused. From the school's perspective therefore, they simply do not rank in the competition for extremely scarce funds available for remodelling the building and dealing with the massive maintenance and health and safety issues.
In the time available for public lettings, the courts are used for about 45% of the time. In practice this means that at peak time in peak season, they are very active, whilst at other times of the year and week they are empty. From the Sports Trust's point of view therefore, they will not justify investment from a very small pot of money, given that there are other activities where participation rates are much higher and where the investment would therefore, benefit a greater number of members of the community.
It is on this basis that initial discussions took place between the Sports Trust and ourselves, and an agreement reached. Enough has been said about both the information relating to the demographics of the sport and the consultation process for me not to need to discuss this - however, I acknowledge that with better discussion, we might have avoided some of the acrimony that has been present from some participants.
As part of our investigation into possibilities, we have received a recommendation from England Squash regarding a company that can re-fit the squash courts with a glass back wall and a moving sidewall. This would enable two fully refurbished championship standard courts, a squash doubles court or a dance studio in the same space.
It would also enable the school to use the space all day and may also lead to increased lettings by the recreation centre at times when the squash courts are not well used.
My estimate at the moment is that this would cost about £20,000 - £30,000 more than the proposed conversion.
It might well be possible to find some of this money from savings in the compensation scheme, from increased lettings and from increased charges (would squash players pay another £1 a game for this?) - subject to agreement from the Sports Trust.
However, there will still be a shortfall - and it strikes me that this is where the committed squash players might be able to help - that could be met by some form of grant from the Squash Governing Body. Possibly in return for a commitment to recruit, coach and develop young players, there might be scope for a bid for matched funding or some other form of development grant. As a school we will be happy to promote the sport (we already do), and given a glass back wall might even be able to teach groups there occasionally. What we don't have, however, is time or the ability to seek out such funding.
We will need to make a decision about our new drama / dance space urgently. I have been advised by the chief architect at the DfES that we should not invest any money in either temporary accomodation or in improvements to the worst part of the building (because this might delay investment under the 'Building Schools for the Future' programme).
The Governing Body will be most grateful therefore, to receive any offers of support in the direction of bridging the funding gap that would enable a long-term future for these courts.
I hope that this is a useful contribution to the debate.
Best regards
John Peckham