Keep us dancing (From Daily Echo)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Uncertain future for Eastleigh's Leigh Ballroom
10:32am Friday 1st January 2010 in Eastleigh
PLEA: Generations of dancers gather to protest against the proposed closure of Leigh Ballroom, inset. Echo picture by Chris Moorhouse. Order no: 9688679
CONTROVERSIAL plans to turn a historic ballroom into a youth centre have left some of the country’s top dancing talent fearing for their future.
As revealed in the Daily Echo two weeks ago, Eastleigh Borough Council has vowed to turn the landmark Leigh Ballroom building into a youth centre, despite a 100-year tradition which has produced some of Britain’s top dancing champions.
The news has devastated dancers who train at the centre under the guidance of Linda and Robert Bellinger, who have been running their dance teaching business from the venue since 1978.
The building is owned by the council who lease it to Linda and her husband, who teach ballroom and Latin classes with their daughter Lisa Ivanets and her husband Alex who are the current UK Professional Latin dance champions.
Currently their classes boast some of the dance stars of the future, with a number of their teenagers competing in the top six in the country.
But when their 25-year lease came to an end in 2008, council bosses decided to carry out a £680,000 revamp of the site in Leigh Road and turn it into a youth facility with pool table, an IT suite and counselling services.
Mrs Bellinger, 56, said: “We cannot find another suitable venue. We are desperate for somewhere permanent and big enough.
“This place is an asset to the town and we believe the council should have made the most of us. This is the heart of the community, where all generations are welcome. More than 300 people use this every week.
“Without a concrete base to train our dancers will suffer. This is devastating for us all.”
A council spokesman said that the need for a youth facility had been long acknowledged.
He added: “There have been long, ongoing negotiations since 2008 with the council tenants at Leigh Ballroom as the lease expired at the end of September 2008.
“A commercial decision was taken by the tenants not to renew the lease so the council sought alternative uses for the building.”
Mrs Bellinger denies that they were offered the chance to renew the lease.
The plan is due to get the thumbs up by Eastleigh Local Area Committee this month, the same time the current occupiers move out
Comments(10)
huckit P
says...
11:07am Fri 1 Jan 10
The council say the Bellingers were offered the chance to renew the lease but Mrs Bellinger says they were not. They can't both be right.
localnews
says...
11:10am Fri 1 Jan 10
Southampton Heart
says...
11:27am Fri 1 Jan 10
This needs to STAY as a Dance Venue.
Airbus
says...
12:20pm Fri 1 Jan 10
The council will recieve No income from this. At least they got rent from the dance school.
This Lib-Dem lot are so out of touch I won't be voting for them again.
Condor Man
says...
3:25pm Fri 1 Jan 10
huckit P wrote:if the lease had run out it's likely that the dance people couldn't agree new terms. It's very difficult to get out of a lease under the Landlord & Tenant Act as I'm sure EBC are aware.
If the council are hell-bent on providing (another) youth centre why don't they transform some of the unused portion of the Magistrates Courts further along Leigh Road. As they are situated adjacent to the sports centre and playing fields it would seem an ideal venue. The council say the Bellingers were offered the chance to renew the lease but Mrs Bellinger says they were not. They can't both be right.
funlover8
says...
3:55pm Fri 1 Jan 10
Condor Man
says...
4:32pm Fri 1 Jan 10
funlover8 wrote:If the tenant's couldn't agree terms and EBC could prove that they had agreed to turn the centre over to the youth then sadly they have no legal recourse.
WHY oh WHY does Eastleigh council always get its own way and to hell with what anyone else may think. Will they even consider the petition handed in and the loss of jobs and closure of one of the best ballroom facilities around. Surely there must be some sort of appeal procedure or am I just hoping for too much these days.
bajbrown
says...
9:46am Sun 3 Jan 10
urely we get a say!!!! We pay our council tax BUT WE SURE AS HECK DONT GET A SAY ON WHAT IT GETS SPENT ON!! Our daughter dances at the Leigh Ballroom and our parents used to go to the Friday night dance held there in the 60's!!!! Another Youth Centre........they have been there done that time and time again and it does not work. Leigh Ballroom is a community centre that has hundreds of people through it every week.........WHY TAKE AWAY SOMETHING THAT WORKS PERFECTLY WELL FOR THE COMMUNITY!!!!
JDavis
says...
2:01pm Sun 3 Jan 10
Condor Man says...
10:57am Fri 1 Jan 10