29/06/2021
In response to the "open letter" from the Councillors sent to the newspapers - see photos
29th June 2021
Dear Councillors,
Thank you for your letter regarding the closure of Phoenix Gymnastics Club and it’s “future”.
Firstly, whilst I understand the concept of an open letter you appear to have missed everyone at Phoenix off the recipient list as the first we heard of it was when the Maidenhead Advertiser contacted Phoenix for comment on the contents.
If the council were serious in their desire to “work together for the future of Phoenix Gymnastics members” or “draw on your relationships, connections and expertise”, they might, as a first port of call, have considered reaching out to the trustees and staff directly, but we have had no such contact.
A cynic might suggest that an open letter from a council that has been on the receiving end of significant anger and dismay on social media for its handling of the Phoenix situation is simply an exercise in “posterior concealment”, but let me try and respond as best I can.
It is important to note that whilst I share the council’s concern and sympathy for local businesses and charities that have suffered due to the COVID pandemic, this was not the reason Phoenix closed.
Phoenix weathered the crisis extremely well, a testament to the loyalty and dedication of our members. The only reason Phoenix has been “unable to continue in its present guise” is that we have a gap of a mere nine months from the demolition of our current facility at Water Oakley to the ability to generate income at our purpose-built facility at Fifield.
I do not share your assertion that the “focus should not be on rehashing the past” as I believe many valuable lessons can be learnt from this sad situation. The trustees must, and do take responsibility for Phoenix closing, but the oft repeated assertion that the council would do everything it could to secure the future of this well-loved community asset, was rarely, if ever, backed up with any meaningful, practical help.
Assurances that assistance would be given in finding an alternative site produced nothing and financial grants related to the planning application on our rented Water Oakley site disappeared when that planning permission was not acted upon, and failed to reappear in the current application to expand and redevelop Bray studios on the Water Oakley site.
It was the trustees of Phoenix that found and negotiated a lease for the Fifield site, owned by Summerleaze, who we would like to thank for their straightforward generosity and the way that they have supported us, without reservation, throughout this whole sorry saga. Summerleaze were one of the few who have consistently said yes, when others seemed to take a perverse pleasure in saying no.
It is all very well writing in a spirit of cooperation now, when what we needed was cooperation months, if not years ago. To be fair there were some notable, singular efforts to assist our last minute search to find a temporary home but one councillor is not enough. What would have really assisted would have been a coordinated and concerted effort to actually help, but none was forthcoming. I believe the opportunity to “secure the future of Phoenix”, as promised, was missed as far back as when the redevelopment of Water Oakley was first mooted, and I hope lessons can be learned from that.
However the focus recently has been on our attempts to erect a temporary training facility in parallel with our proposed new facility in Fifield.
We never expected any special treatment with respect to planning “particularly when relating to substantial development in the green belt”, permission for which we already have. The only reason we tried to erect our own temporary facility for the nine months we needed it was that all other options had been eliminated. It was complicated and an absolute last roll of the dice as it would use all our reserves, but our only other option at that point was to close.
I note with irony that, seemingly overnight at our previous home in Water Oakley, a green belt site, numerous, large industrial buildings have sprung up, all allowed under retrospective, temporary planning permission, in fact our attempt to erect a temporary building on the Fifield site was partly informed by this fact, so it seems that the “troubling precedent” has already been set.
We took advice and believed that we had the “urgent and emergency business need” required to utilise parallel planning permission.
We did not intend any planning breaches and were fully confident that any concerns could be rectified in time, but what we did not expect was the enmity or determination of the Council’s efforts to halt our temporary training facility, culminating in a stop work order that cost us many thousands of pounds in spoiled concrete and contract delay fines for the temporary building. These costs, added to the prospect of being unable to generate income in the near to medium term, were the final nail in the coffin for Phoenix, but we were surprised that this nail was driven home with such ferocity by the very same council that insists it is “positive, constructive and focussed on helping the club”.
Perhaps you might like to ask the council enforcement officer who stated that “you got what you deserved” where that sentiment fits into our new found spirit of cooperation that we are embarking on?
We will forever regret that we have failed to find a way to keep this proud club going and apologise to all those who have worked tirelessly through the years towards this goal of having a proper training facility for the gymnasts who train so hard and ask so little.
Our greatest sorrow is reserved for our staff and members. Young gymnasts have few places to go as the sport is so oversubscribed and after months of Zoom classes from their living rooms, the closure of Phoenix is heart-breaking. Talented coaches, some of the best in the country, have sadly been let go, along with a dedicated team that creatively kept the business going through the pandemic, despite the forced closures that saw so many other business fail. We were over-subscribed, self-funding and no burden to the taxpayer for more than four decades; and were set to continue coaching more than 1,000 gymnasts a week in the new purpose-built facility.
Sadly, the Borough will now not see one of the best gymnastics facilities in the region and beyond opening in just under a year as planned, and has also lost the largest Sport England grant of £450,000 at a time when youth sport is struggling to survive and children need it most.
We are, quite rightly, welcoming the prospect of the Maidenhead Heritage Centre expanding into the SportsAble building, but what future achievements will they be able to celebrate if we continue to close clubs and lose facilities that encourage and inspire our children to achieve greatness?
So, whilst our ex-home at Water Oakley continues to expand, supported, if the rumours are correct, by a multi-billion pound, international company, (yet no space could be found for us there), our club, that has self-sufficiently served the community for decades, will disappear. We have been squeezed out by developers and big business and whilst I believe the councillors are genuine in their regret at the fate of Phoenix, they have allowed it to happen.
I hope you can see that you must take some responsibility for allowing this jewel to slip through our fingers and that lessons can be learned to make sure that this does not happen again.
There are dedicated and talented individuals within the Borough providing alternative gymnastic provision. I hope they do not take it as a slight and allow me a biased view that they will not be able to provide the depth and breadth of training that Phoenix was able to provide, tumble-tots right up to national level competition. Any gymnastic provider in the Borough with such aspirations will come up against the same hurdles we did of finding an affordable facility in which to provide both recreational and top level, elite training. We had it within our grasp and we let it slip away, for which we should all be ashamed.
Joni Mitchell, in her song, Big Yellow Taxi wrote:
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”, and I fear that we will all come to realise that this is true in the case of Phoenix.
For those of you that would point out the song was about the development of green spaces I would suggest alternative lyrics to say:
“they paved a small corner of an unremarkable, soon to be gravel extraction site, and put up a world class, children’s sporting facility, promoting health, fitness, confidence and resilience in our children that will be with them for life”….which to be fair, doesn’t scan as well as Joni’s original lyrics.
Exhausted and demoralised as we are, the Phoenix trustees will always make themselves available to discuss any potential future for the Borough’s young gymnasts.
Yours sincerely,
Alisdair Thornton
Chair of Trustees
Phoenix Gymnastics Club
24/06/2021
20/06/2021
19/06/2021
16/06/2021
15/06/2021
14/06/2021
10/06/2021
09/06/2021
07/06/2021
27/05/2021
26/05/2021
25/05/2021
24/05/2021
18/05/2021
18/05/2021
