First published on Thursday 13 May 1999:

SPORTS CENTRE WILL BE BULLDOZED AFTER ALL

A REDUNDANT sports centre is to be demolished after all.

Campaigners hoped to save the Sidney West sports centre in Burgess Hill, which closed after the town's Triangle leisure centre opened in March.

They were offered new hope when the Tories took control of Mid Sussex Council from the Liberal Democrats in last week's local elections.

But first meeting of the new council was told last night it was not practical to save the partly-stripped and empty centre in Leylands Road.

Atemporary halt on work while an inspection was carried out by the Tory group proved to be a short-lived reprieve.

New council chairman Christine Field said work on removing internal fittings had gone too far and contractors were making a start on removing asbestos before demolition work started.

Mrs Field said: "The work inside the hall has already gone too far. It was felt a review on the retention of the facilities was inappropriate."

The decision came after an inspection of the centre showed internal fittings such as lights and toilets had already been removed.

Local campaigner and former councillor Chris Smith said: "It is in such a state that it appears it would not be commercially viable to try to save it as it is."

The long-running row over the centre flared last night when Lib Dem leader Ken Blanshard tabled six questions about the Conservatives trying to change the terms of the demolition contract.

He said: "The Tories are taking up bad old habits of secretive decision-making by an as yet unidentified clique."

Supporters of the campaign had doubts about the chances of success, but claimed the success of the new Triangle centre showed there could have been room for the Sidney West to remain as a local facility.

The Sidney West centre is about 50 years old and was a gift from the late Sidney West to the youth of town.

It became a well-known boxing centre but then developed into a sports centre run privately by trustees.

It was eventually taken over by the district council after it ran up debts and needed repairs.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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