A Ross Town Councillor is leading a bid to improve the town's sports facilities. Councillor John Edwards, chairman of the Finance and Amenities Committee, referred to the Ross Sports Centre as "a disgrace" and said that an 'umbrella' organisation should be formed to co- ordinate all the town's sporting activities. He was speaking at Monday's meeting of the Town Council. Tony Featherstone, the official at Herefordshire Council responsible for sporting activities, told the committee that the Council would be prepared for the running of the Sports Centre to be handed over to an independent body in Ross provided that it was properly constituted and included representatives with status and management experience. Councillor Edwards said it was felt that the Sports Centre had deteriorated to such an extent that it was no longer "fit for purpose", a disgrace—shabby, dirty, badly run and with insufficient changing rooms to provide proper facilities for the sports teams using the grounds. Many sports people have preferred to transfer to centres in neighbouring districts and parents have gone elsewhere to find decent training facilities for their children Mr Featherstone outlined the complicated structure of the grounds and sports centre which are owned by the Herefordshire Council with leases to different clubs and an independent management company employed to run the actual Centre itself. Councillor Edwards said: "In my view the Finance Committee should also be empowered to arrange a meeting with representatives of all the users of the Sports Centre, and other interested parties, with Town Councillors to discuss the proposed formation of a Ross Sports Council, an 'umbrella' organisation that would be responsible for co- ordinating all the town's sporting activities including management of the Sports Centre at Wilton and the development of facilities around John Kyrle school that should be open to all residents, as well as the school, when they have been financed by public funds. "The big advantage of an 'umbrella' Ross Sports Council would be that it would be in a much better position to obtain the many different forms of funding available for the development of all kinds of sporting activities." He said that to get funding the proposed Sports Council would need to have an independent chairman, and executive members, with credibility and management experience. Finding suitable 'volunteers' would be a major task. Councillor Edwards added: "This new approach would seem to provide a way of finally dealing with the disputes amongst users of the Sports Centre." Councillors agreed that a meeting should be arranged to discuss the proposal.
