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Recreation centre should stay in Whalley

Surrey - The Editor, I cannot believe that Surrey council is planning to move the recreation centre from Whalley (City Centre) to Bridgeview.

Having lived in this neighbourhood for 40 years, I've witnessed the massive development that is going on in what is being called the heart of the city. Residents don't deserve to have our recreation centre put in an out-of-the way location that will require us to take transit or drive.Elementary schools such as Old Yale Road, K.B Woodward, Cindrich, AHP Matthew, to name a few, currently enjoy the convenience of being able to walk to the pool and ice rink to enhance their physical education programs and to give many of their students an opportunity to learn to swim that they may not otherwise have. The only school remotely close to the new location is Bridgeview.Then there is the swim club, which likely has early morning practices, so they would be competing with Pattullo Bridge traffic during the rush hour.If the intent is to push people onto SkyTrain, when many of us are currently within walking distance of the recreation centre, the cost is now increased to include the transit fare each way, not to mention that any public/private partnership generally means increased admission costs.We've already pushed our seniors out of the city centre to Chuck Bailey. Although it's a new building, there is a great sense of fear among seniors walking in that location.Building this in Bridgeview is highly detrimental to the City of Surrey residents that live in Whalley - oops, City Centre.Please reconsider.Marion O'ByrneSurrey