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From The Socialist newspaper, 16 February 2022
Save St Mary's Leisure Centre
Is Southampton council working for people or asset strippers?
Fighting cuts in Southampton, photo Nick Chaffey (Click to enlarge)
Save SMLC press release
Closed before Xmas, the Tory council in Southampton locked out hundreds of users from St Mary's Leisure Centre (SMLC) halfway through a council consultation on its future.
86% of the 1,758 of people who responded oppose the closure. Yet council leader Daniel Fitzhenry said the result would be ignored, the centre will close, and the land sold to developers.
Council cabinet member for finance, John Hannides, says: "If you are going to pay a significant amount of public money, you have to be able to justify where you are spending it." We asked, how much money?
The council budget for 2022-23 is £213 million. The funding for the leisure centre is £148,000 - less than 0.001% of council spending!
Is the council's priority providing leisure and health facilities to the Southampton community? Or are they asset strippers working for the property developers?
Councillor Hannides says the long-term future of the building will require 'millions' in investment, but has no evidence to back his phantom figures.
Solent University does not provide access to the same facilities as priority goes to students and staff. Neither does the council have any control over Solent University.
St Mary's Leisure Centre remains safe to use, and we call on the council to immediately reopen the centre, while conducting a full survey of the building which then can be the basis of a genuine assessment of the long-term life of the building.
- Join the march - Saturday 19 February, 11am, assemble at SMLC at the top of Clovelly Road, and march to the Bargate
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Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
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In The Socialist 16 February 2022:
What we think
Britain's economic growth figures mask fragile false recovery
News
'Labour by name - Tory by policy'
Covid: Fight for full sick pay
Tory stealth taxes burden 'packhorse generation'
Left Labour MPs under pressure over Erdington
Neither Washington, London nor Moscow
Australian nurses strike against understaffing and low pay
Erdington by-election
Birmingham Erdington by-election
Campaigning in Birmingham Erdington by-election
Saltley Gate
From our history: 1972 miners' strike
PCS elections
PCS Elections 2022: Time for new union leadership
Workplace news
NEU strike at girls' school chain over pensions
University workers striking back
"If we don't fight, we won't win!"
Just Eat strike spreads and forces concessions
Join the scaffs mass picket at Scunthorpe steelworks
Worksop Wincanton workers win pay rise after strike
Campaigns
West Sussex care campaigners' victory
Why I'm going to Socialist Students conference
Campaigning to make 2 March student walkout happen
Stop eviction of Camden homeless collective
East Sussex: Poverty and cuts bring people to Socialist Party
Fund us to fight for socialism
Readers' opinion
TV: 'Death of Two Black Men: Police in the Spotlight'
How Cardiff Bay's redevelopment led to 'social cleansing'
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2021