Cameron worseĪndrew Anthony asks if Nigel Farage is Britain’s most influential politician ( Comment). Michael Fuller Harpenden, Hertfordshire Farage bad. Then came Thatcher and, to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, she paved paradise and put up a parking lot, and her successors are still doing it. I owe my career as a professional cellist to the place and Essex in general. It had first-rate sports facilities, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a theatre, an annual music and arts festival that attracted artists and musicians from across the globe and that supported a world-class string quartet, the Alberni, who also taught in the town. I grew up in Harlow, Essex, in the 1950s and 60s. This is not easy, but if residents will vote for it, then it can be done. Luckily for north Norfolk, our own district council has maintained its leisure services and opened a new centre in 2021. But they are also places of friendship, community pride and excellence. Yes, leisure centres do promote physical health, yes they promote mental health and of course they are for everybody. As budgets shrink, leisure services are always there as a source of possible cuts. When they wear out, there will be decisions about whether or in what form an authority can afford a replacement. They must be defended at almost every local election and on many days of the year. Central government does not require that they be provided. They are built largely with local capital and run on local revenue. They are what is known as discretionary services. Leisure centres and swimming pools lie within the domain of local government.
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