Survey shows people want ice rink in Hove (From The Argus)

Survey shows people want ice rink in Hove

7:00pm Wednesday 23rd January 2013 in News

An entrepreneur bidding to build a temporary ice rink at a leisure centre site says his own survey of residents backs up his call for the area to remain a sports facility.

Simon James has drawn up proposals for a temporary year-round ice rink on land next to the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove.

To support his bid he conducted a survey of 550 residents and says the results show that people want sports facilities and not residential properties. Brighton and Hove City Council’s city plan states that any redevelopment of the site should include 400 homes.

The survey revealed that four out of five participants thought the King Alfred a good location for the ice rink and more than half strongly agreed that the rink would boost the local economy.

The ice rink would cost up to £1 million to be constructed on a grassed area above the old ten pin bowling site and Mr James believes it could attract tens of thousands of visitors a year.

Redevelopment

He said: “This project stands for protecting the site from bad residential and commercial development and from the data I have the council would find it very hard to do anything soon if they go down that route.

“The King Alfred area is not going to be redeveloped or even decided upon for at least five years, however the temporary ice rink would either prove its worth, or not during this time, and may determine it viable for a state of the art ice rink, pools and leisure facilities to be built on the site as a priority.”

All entrants to the survey were entered into a prize draw for skating equipment with pairs of skates totalling more than £1,000 handed out to 20 lucky winners.

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