Gym club future discussed

The Blenheim Gymnastics Club have some important decisions to make in the near future and they are seeking community feedback.

In the first step of many towards helping create a sustainable future for gymnastics in Marlborough, a feasibility report was commissioned and completed, looking at two possibilities for the future of the club.

There were two main parts to the report.

The first was a feasibility study into the current building - should the club stay and make major repairs and upgrades or seek out a new building.

Secondly, a business case study into the sustainability of staying fully-volunteer or moving to a paid staff structure was undertaken.

Several recommendations arose from the report regarding the building issue.

• The current building does not meet the club’s current or future needs and has significant issues such as aging infrastructure, lack of heating and cooling, stormwater and flooding issues, lack of car park, pedestrian access and streetlights.

• The cost of fixing these issues, along with physical constraints such as available land make any form of renovation untenable.

• Options for a new facility are limited due to the large floor area size needed and roof height requirements.

• The recommended option is a Council-owned building at 18 Kinross St currently leased by Smith City. It meets floor area and roof height specifications a swell as fitting the MDC strategy of creating sports hubs and facilitating shared use of existing facilities.

• Other options identified included a new purpose-built facility on Rewi Murray Park or a temporary structure placed alongside the Horton Park Pavilion – both options are both time and cost prohibitive.

Three points were made on the issue of staffing.

• The Blenheim Gymnastics Club would be able to move to a paid staffing structure with a governance board overseeing management, staying fully volunteer was assessed as unsustainable.

• Some programme alterations would be required to become financially sustainable and grant funding would need to be sorted.

• Gymnastics NZ would assist in determining the correct structure for the club and offer their knowledge and expertise if required.

The next steps in the process are to present the report to Council, but before then feedback for the community is sought on the report recommendations.

All comments and feedback are welcome, please email [email protected].