Lady Sheila Butlin first heard that parish Deputy Andrew Lewis was looking into the future of community facilities in the parish when she turned on her television by chance.
She discovered that one of the options being examined was to demolish the centre, named the Butlin Memorial Hall, build houses on the site, and replace it with a new centre beside the parish school.
She told the JEP: ‘The field was bought by my late husband and was given to St John for the benefit of a sports centre for the St John people.
They could have said, “”Lady Butlin, this is what we are thinking of doing.”” This has not been very easy.’ The centre opened 23 years ago with the help of donations from the Butlin family and offered sports from squash to snooker.
But Deputy Lewis believes it is out of date, and more modern facilities are needed.
At a parish meeting last night he offered parishioners three options: to do nothing; to try to raise funds to refurbish the existing centre; to sell the centre to a developer and build a new one beside the school.
The centre is run through a trust, and were parishioners to accept option three, the Butlin Memorial Trust would be retained, with the assets being transferred to the new land below the school.
