Those of you passing through Beeston and Holbeck in recent days may have seen lots of posters springing up in shops, community centres and bus stops advertising the latest event from the SPLASH campaign to reopen South Leeds Sports Centre.
The posters are advertising SPLASH’s own ‘Olympic Flame Run’ protest, which will take place throughout Holbeck and Beeston on Sunday, April 1, between noon and 1pm. Local residents are being urged to get involved by either running or walking all or a section of the route, to carry the torch for a short difference or display poisters and flags outside your home or shop on the route.
The protest starts at Domestic Street Bridge, before going along Domestic Street, turnign left at St Matthew’s Community Centre, across Holbeck Moor, through the underpass t the sports centre, up Beeston Hill, onto Tempest Road, then onto Dewsbury Road, down to the old library, onto Hunslet Hall Road and back to the sports centre.
The official 2012 Olympics torch is set to go through Beeston and Hunslet on June 25.
South Leeds Sports Centre closed in November 2010 despite a residents’ campaign to save it. The cash-strapped council said increasing costs and falling user numbers were to blame.
A community consortium led by social enterprise Tiger 11 subsequently failed in a bid to take over and run the centre, while Greenhouse developer Citu is looking at the possibility of sports centre provision on the site which has now been earmarked for use as a potential new primary school.
For more information about the protest, contact Sally on 0788 9945345 or Steve on 0790 0324479.
