Labour launches Save Our Sports protest

Labour in Hull today launched Save Our Sports - a protest against steep hikes in charges for Council sports facilities.

These increased charges were reaffirmed by Lib Dem councillors at a City Council meeting yesterday (16 April) and threaten the future of local sports clubs.

The Save Our Sports petition is available from Hull North MP Diana Johnson and can be signed through her website at www.dianajohnson.co.uk.

Diana Johnson MP said: "All over the country, local authorities are using the 2012 Olympics to increase participation in sports and improve local sports facilities.

"Hull's Lib Dem Council has chosen this moment to go in the opposite direction.

"In the face of increases in rents and other charges, massively above inflation, many longstanding sports clubs in Hull now face a struggle to survive. This comes in the middle of a global recession and at a time of concern about the public health time-bomb of obesity.

"Hull's Lib Dem Council is a public health disaster zone. Already Lib Dem councillors have reversed, with no alternative ideas of their own, the progress Labour made in promoting healthy eating in our primary schools.

"More recently Hull City Council refused Government cash for free swimming for under-16s and over-60s. By doing this Hull also lost out on money to improve local pools.

"However, this bloated administration can apparently afford to pay its Chief Executive more than the Prime Minister, lavish millions on consultants and public relations and hoard millions more in reserves.

"Save Our Sports is a plea for Hull City Council to look again at whether the policy of upping its tax on sports will damage participation in healthy sporting activity, contradicting the authority's own recently stated objectives.

"Labour believes that Hull can balance its books without wrecking sport in the city."