Labour's Sports Satisfaction Rating on the Skids

1.36.26pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 15th Sep 2009

Local leisure centres have been run down by Labour

An independent Sport England survey shows that Labour-run Lambeth Council ranks second to last in the whole of London in resident satisfaction levels for its sport and leisure facilities. Lambeth scored just 53.1 per cent satisfied against a national average of 62.7 per cent.

This failure in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics comes hard on the heels of cuts in opening times at our Leisure Centres. There are now almost daily complaints about scruffy conditions, lack of basic facilities like showers or lockers and high prices from disgruntled service users at Lambeth's dated and dingy Leisure Centres.

Leisure Centre users say there's almost a feeling that nobody cares and there's a persistent rumour that the Council has only just got round to signing its Leisure Service contract after two years operating with the current leisure service provider. Maybe there's a connection?

With so much uncertainty about re-provision any time soon of worn out sports and leisure facilities all over the borough, especially in Clapham and Streatham, this feeling of aimless drift and decay is only going to get worse.

We urgently need someone to get a grip on this key issue so that the whole community, especially the borough's young people, have sports and leisure facilities that match Labour's matchless rhetoric.

With the nation avidly watching their TV screens for Olympic success at the spanking new if temporary facilities in East London, let's hope Lambeth's own future sporting stars are not left on the sidelines for lack of decent facilities.