Are Plymouth City Council mad?

Are Plymouth City Council completely mad? That is a question I probably shouldn't be asking but I am so annoyed about plans for the forthcoming Life Centre that I can only assume that Plymouth City Council have very little interest in the needs of the majority of people in Plymouth. OK so Tom Daley and Tonia Couch need better training facilities for the 2012 Olympics but does that really need to cost us £44 million pounds? Apparently the only real problem with the Plymouth pool is that the diving boards are too narrow and don't meet Olympic standard, I can only assume that wider diving boards cost a vast amount of money? Another concern is that we have just proved how great our Olympians already are so do they really need that much money spent on improvements with their current facilities.

As I have argues before wouldn't it be better to spend half a million pounds improving 88 individual facilities across the City rather than focusing on one big commercial centre that may end being a training centre for the minority. Olympics aside, the proposals for the Life centre include an ice rink and a leisure pool, sounds like a nail in the coffin for the Pavilions centre! Oh and a martial arts dojo to cripple the Thai / kick boxing gyms in the city - Saints, Taurus and Wildkick. What other small businesses can Plymouth City Council affect in their attempt to build this new monstrosity. Perhaps they will include a new pole dancing studio to get rid of me too?

Another concern is that the people of Plympton have been after a new swimming facility for many years and are still waiting, many of them don't want to have to travel to the city centre to use the facilities. As David Santillo pointed out in a recent letter to the Herald postbag, the Life Centre threatens to swallow up much green space within Central Park, this is despite previous assurances from the council that the park would be protected from any loss of green space. What with the proposals from Plymouth Argyle for their huge sky tower, restaurant and other attractions, I wonder exactly what will be left of Central Park at the end of the developments.

Whilst I am on the subject of dodgy council decisions I must stick my oar in over the closure of the diving boards on Plymouth Hoe, surely these are worth repairing? Perhaps we could get some of Plymouth's tombstoners training with Tom Daley for the forthcoming Olympics!

That brings me to the fabulous Tinside lido -pictured above, which has been widely discussed recently: initial plans for the lido included a roof so that the lido could be used in all weathers and could be a venue for gigs and events despite the weather but the decision was made to save money and go for the open air lido rather than the removable roof - fools! Now we wonder why the lido is losing money? How many times has the lido been closed due to people throwing glass into the pool at night? A roof would solve this problem! If the pool had a roof it wouldn't matter if we did have another summer of bad weather as people could still use the facility. I rest my case.

I must say a big congratulations to Rosanna and Steve on their engagement, you can read all about it on Rosanna's blog. Also well down to Jo for reporting her lunatic stalker to the police, check out her blog for full info!

Well tomorrow is that day of fear when I enter the South West heats of Pole Divas championships 2008 alongside our star student Tamar Preston who I know will wow the audience. I have mixed feelings about my performance as the organisers have insisted that all competitors must wear shoes, it is a long time since I have danced in heels so it will be interesting to see how it affects my performance! I did one full dress rehearsal yesterday which went OK so hopefully tomorrow will also go well. Watch this space:

Stay Healthy,

Sam x