For those of you who didnt get receive the message last night.

Well done everyone !!

From: "John Griffiths" <johngriffiths@...>
Date: Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:34 pm
Subject: York Hall Saved!


Dear all - very good news!

As you may have seen on London Tonight news this evening, the
Council agreed earlier this evening to award the new leisure
contract for running leisure facilities throughout Tower Hamlets to
Greenwich Leisure Ltd. This is a 15-year contract and is an
arrangement which secures a ring-fenced £4.72m funding package for
YH. The investment which will be made over the next 2 years is
enough to undertake all the required maintenance and refurbishment
work and to keep the facility open for at least the next 15 years.

The only minor downside is that it will be necessary at some point
in 2005-6 temporarily to close the facilities at York Hall in order
to allow the maintenance works to go ahead. We have, however, been
assured that this will be kept to a minimum and progress of the
works are to be monitored closely by the Council. Nor will the
temporary closure happen until the new Mile End facilities are up
and running. Finally, we have also asked that the User Group be
formally constituted and given a more prominent role in the new
management of the facility. So, watch this space!

In the current environment and with various pressures on Council
budgets, this is probably the best possible result we could have got
for York Hall. It is also a tribute to the lobbying and all the
hard work which members of the community, the Users Group and the
consultative committee have put in over the last year. Thank you!

Cllr. John Griffiths
(Bethnal Green North Ward)
134 Old Ford Road
London E2 9PW

T. 020 8980 2814
M. 07887 643980
E. johngriffiths@...