The Fort remains the best place to put indoor sport

SURELY when considering again the repositioning of all the present facilities within the Fort Regent complex, perhaps the main, most practical, most prominent and intelligent question should be: ‘If you had the problem of developing an indoor sports and social amenity centre, and place it in the most effective and efficient position to serve the highest and most populated area on the Island, where would any planner or social infrastructure organiser place such services to maximise their most intelligent and efficient outcome?’

Surely if we are also to minimise and reduce the physical travelling, especially by vehicles that pollute the atmosphere, then we should be ideally investing in placing the majority of our social provisions in their most effective positioning to reduce the need for unnecessary travelling. Would that not be within the central hub of the most populated area?

Is not the present central position, especially for indoor sports and activities, not the best answer to serve not only the present central core of the populace but also realising the ever-increasing numbers that will additionally need providing for?

The present arrangement of the Fort includes voluminous car parking facilities that serve and provide for the outlying districts. Where and why do we need to build further monster concrete high-rise car parking facilities elsewhere that, with all the damaging cost to the natural landscape that it will incur with further tons of concrete, fuel and building-energy wastage they would incur. Furthermore, the Fort has all the interesting levels and surfaces which lend it to the provision of a natural and commanding atmosphere and viewing platform that can be enjoyed by everyone visiting.

Yes, it was wise to provide for other sports facilities, such as the unit at Les Quennevais and St Clement, for they have the additional outside fields and tracks for different sporting needs.

But is the Fort not clearly the most intelligent location for an indoor to serve the most populated area of our Island, leaving aside the additional billions of pounds of costs that our children will inherit?