Tor Leisure management set to change by end of November

By glastopeep | Saturday, October 15, 2011, 17:41

Tor Leisure, Glastonbury's last remaining recreational green space and community centre, which occupies a total of 17 acres and provides a venue for many functions, meetings and gatherings looks set to be taken over by Avalon Leisure (which runs leisure centres in Street and Wells) from November 30th, following a bitter dispute between the leaseholder Rik Cook and the landlord Mendip District Council.

Tor Leisure Centre in Glastonbury

"The Tor" which was formerly known as Morlands Social Club, was bought by the Council and then leased out for 25 years to a company called Cutsdean Leisure Ltd in March 1989. Mr. Cook took over the lease in 1998 for £150,000 and it is due to expire in 2014, but following allegations that he did not keep up with the agreed terms and conditions of the lease with regards to the upkeep of the grounds and property which are after all owned by the taxpayer, Mendip Council began legal proceedings against Mr. Cook at the end of last year.

This week the Council and their tenant reached an agreement through legal mediation which means that Mr. Cook's lease will be surrendered and he will leave the premises by the end of November, leaving the council better placed to develop the centre and its facilities to offer Glastonbury people a more enhanced sports and leisure facility

Mr. Cook said: "After 12 years of commitment to redeveloping Tor Leisure, our final scheme does not concur with the Landlord's original intentions of restructuring the outdoor sports facilities. We completely agree an enhancement of the site is long overdue and by returning the lease we believe the Landlord will be better placed to ensure the entire facilities can now be vastly improved.

"As a community asset Tor Leisure's value is huge and we are very proud to have been part of its continued success over the years as are those before us. We believe though after transition, the next phase here should take the Centre further forward and inevitably benefit the entire community".

Meanwhile, Cllr Harvey Siggs, leader of Mendip District Council said "As a council we have pledged to improve the way we manage assets and contracts and whilst we regret having to take the initial decision to proceed with legal action against the tenant, we are pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement which will benefit the community"

While some members of our local community were of the opinion that the legal action was in fact a ploy by the council to regain control of the land (worth somewhere in the region of £20 million) for redevelopment, Mr Siggs added "It is a well-known and used local facility and we are sure that the enhancement of the centre will have a big impact on the community and we hope that the centre will remain a part of that community for the foreseeable future".

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Comments

Oh don't worry JEB, I read this garbage a while ago and have only recently thought to respond.

JEB refuses to recognise Professional or Qualified advice, opinion, analysis or report preferring to rely on his own limited, self interested vision and personal preferences.In fairness to JEB though, his past master MDC really shouldn't have let him off the leash, I mean you just shouldn't do that even with an untrained toothless rotweiller!You can't miss their pooh's though and we retain records of several incidences in this respect.

If anyone would like any REAL evidence of the condition of the fields, we have concise, accurate reports we commissioned from The Turf Research Institute, Institute of Groundsmen, Gloucester CCC and Somerset CCC.The soils are 80% clay silt, alluvial flood plain, the 50 year old land drains are all silted up, the fields have always been a problem as confirmed by the STRI report who reported to Morlands in 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's.

Our leaving Tor Leisure was determined by agreement that the case brought by MDC would inevitably fail at huge cost to the taxpayer.The taxpayer is still of course losing out as we speak, but the entire farce could so easily have been avoided had JEB originally swallowed the blue pill! Don't forget, MDC assigned us the lease with express intention of developing the site - and then they wouldn't let us!!!!!Then, they took us to court for not doing it rotflmao!!

As for our "obsession" re housing on the site?Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/7ruccfb the news page.It's long reading, but the site has unequivocally been identified as a prospective site and was discussed and appraised by MDC who commissioned the report.You would assume the Ward Councillor (or Counsellor lol!) would know about this report.If not he did a worse job than I ever did!!

By RikCook at 13:00 on 19/03/12
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We agree with Sargent Muffin.

Glastonbury is sadly lacking a Community Centre and many of our group have to go to Street to use the Crispin Community Centre there. With the proposed closures of many of the Active Living Schemes which acted as a community focus for many elderly and disabled people, (although this was more by chance than design), the need for a Community Centre in Glastonbury will become even more important.

As Sargent Muffin said it has an large car park and also is disability accessible through out. It is for this reason that it is the venue of choice for the Mendip Community Forum which meets several times a year and enables physically disabled people to socialise and express their needs.

It could also be used for sporting activities for fitter people and especially young people since Glastonbury has so drastically cut provisions for the youth of this town Presumably they are either meant to hang around the streets, stay in, or pay expensive bus fares to go over to Street and use the facilities there.

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TGDPLF

By TGDPLF at 15:42 on 22/10/11
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As an objective town dweller I would be glad to see the facilities at Tor Leisure better used / available to the community. It is a great venue, with excellent parking facilities and wonderful outside green space and I have to say, it feels as though its potential has been unrecognised for some years. It doesn't matter 'who' holds the reins to these opportunties, as long as the benefits to the community can be felt, and with fairness and longevity.

By SargentMuffin at 20:25 on 21/10/11
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Dear me Mr. Wheeler I have upset you.

I stepped down from MDC and Town Council at the last election.

Your juvenile insults were expected. It really does show the level of thinking you operate at, and i thought you were some kind of guru, pity.

Wait and see what the future holds for these sport s fields.

Jim Barron.

By jimbarron at 11:46 on 21/10/11
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I take it Mr. Barron is contributing to this extremely important public debate in his official capacity as both Mendip District and Glastonbury Town Councillor.
(His attitude, and the tone he employs in his correspondence -- typical of Councillors when dealing with the public -- would certainly give one to think so.)

But if he isn't, then (vicious and unwarranted personal attacks on Rik Cook notwithstanding), his personal opinions, protestations and promises for future non-commercial development of this site must be seen as just that -- personal opinions and promises.
And therefore, like the writer, not worth a dog-****.

Caveat lector.

By martinwheeler at 17:31 on 20/10/11
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