I cannot believe Surrey council is planning to move the recreation centre in 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, but we – along with all these new residents – don’t deserve to have our rec 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, use 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. With school budgets stripped to the bone, there will be no money for bussing these students to these programs.
Then there is the swim club who I believe often have early-morning practice – so they would be competing with Pattullo Bridge traffic in the rush hour.
If the intent is to push people onto SkyTrain when for many of us we are currently within walking distance of the North Surrey 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 the Chuck Bailey rec centre, which, although it is a new building, there is a great sense of fear for seniors walking in that location and many have dropped out. Take a look at how few programs are offered there compared to other senior centres. Now these seniors are going to lose the convenience of the North Surrey Recreation Centre too.
Building this in Bridgeview where there isn’t the density of population is, in my opinion, highly detrimental to the City of Surrey residents that live in Whalley – oops, I mean Central City.
Please – reconsider.
Marion O’Byrne