Saturday, September 06, 2014

BRIGG LEISURE: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

A recent Brigg Town Council survey indicated that the majority of people living in the hamlet of Scawby Brook wish to remain in Scawby parish, rather than switching to being residents of our town.
However, the latest issue of North Lincolnshire Council's NewsDirect newspaper contains an article headed "Transformed Brigg leisure centre opens to public."
It refers to "Ancholme Leisure Centre in Brigg" having undergone a £1m transformation.
This is nothing new: You quite often see the centre, these days, described as being in Brigg.
However, the leisure facility - built in the 1970s - is over the border, in Scawby parish.
Going back 30-plus years to the era of the late lamented Lincolnshire Times newspaper, based at 57 Wrawby Street, Brigg, all new reporters were instructed that the leisure centre is NOT in Brigg.
A certain prominent councillor representing Scawby kept a close eye on this. And no-one could blame him for doing so.
Brigg Sugar Factory - its official name - was still going in the 1980s and, despite the descriptive term, was also in Scawby Brook, as was the then Brigg Sugar Factory clubhouse and sportsground, off Scawby Road.
Today the official "crime stats" - covering a mile radius from Brigg police station - include the large Waters Edge housing estate. Yet it is part of Broughton parish.
The Brigg Town Council survey to which we made reference earlier found that many people living on Waters Edge favour a shifting of the boundaries so they can  now live in Brigg.
But a good many legal and administrative hoops will need to be jumped through for that to happen. And so far the survey is as far as things have progressed.

Brigg Blog will keep you informed of any further developments.

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