Admittedly, it’s been a bit quiet on the old news front lately, so here’s a bit of an update…

Over the past couple of years we’ve been trying our hardest to push for a rink in the City area – particularly in light of the 2020 Vision and Masterplan. In that period, we’ve met with a number of high-profile people, including the MP for Durham, the Director of Sport for Durham University, Sport England, the Chief Executive of Durham County Council, and numerous figures from Durham City Council…

We’ve lobbied for the public to make their feelings known during the 2020 Vision consultation. The final report published last year highlighed that over 40 letters from the public, numerous phonecalls (and a petition from CDIF) were all received calling for the return of an ice rink. Crucially, the recommendations section of the report states that:

“This survey may not be said to justify any particular project, although there are calls in general terms for a return of ice skating, a cinema, swimming pool and a conference centre… Leisure provision may also be swimming pool is proposed near the City Centre, the building in which the Bowling Alley and Meridian Fitness Centre are located is a prime site for redevelopment, and there is a developing campaign to bring ice-skating back to the city. There is also strong demand for a multi-screen cinema.”

Despite this, listing the “re-establishment of an ice rink” as a priority was strangely ommited from the recently published Masterplan.

We’ve also explored various possible sites for a rink ourselves. There are a lot of big open spaces in and around Durham, however a lot are in private hands, some would need expensive groundworks / access and utility provision, and a lot are in areas where Council planning rules mean that a sports venue simply can’t be built there. The old ice rink site is of course sitting empty in the middle of a planning dispute that’s escalated to government level. We would love to see the rink ressurected on the site. Indeed the 2020 Vision Masterplan indicates the site is suitable for an “iconic” development for the city. However, unless someone comes along with the millions to firstly buy the site, and secondly afford to build a venue that would conform to the restrictions that would be placed on the site, it’s just not going to happen. (Any takers??) We’re keeping an eye on what’s going on down on Walkergate Riverside, but at the end of the day, we need to be realistic.

We are continuing to persue a couple of possibilities however. They may lead somewhere, they may not. We are also once again looking to re-open discussions regarding sites elsewhere in the County and have recently met with Durham City Council to discuss the possibility of temporary ice in Durham for Christmas ’08. (We’re too late for this year apparently!)

What is evident though is that despite it being over ten years since the rink closed… the support for a new rink among the people is still massive. Keep it up. We’ll get there in the end.