IT HAS come to my notice that the Vale of Glamorgan Council is having its grant from the Welsh Assembly cut once again as in previous years.

Our council tax is to increase again by more than the rate of inflation, it seems that the Vale of Glamorgan council is poorer than the other councils around us.

Our council is not able to renew the floor at Barry Leisure Centre which has not been fit for roller dance skating for four or five years.

Four years ago Mrs S Davies had a meeting with the operational manager for leisure and was told roller skating was banned as it had damaged the floor.

Then the operations manager had a meeting with cCllr Ernest and it was decided that as little or no skating had been held there they would ban it, there was no risk assessment carried out to see if the information was true.

I wonder if no skating had taken place how it caused so much damage to the floor, I would have thought a major decision like banning any sport from a facility should be discussed by all councillors and not two people.

I have information from three of the world’s leading skating wheel manufactures to say their wheels will not damage leisure centre floors.

Plus literature from Granwood Flooring which states that their floors are indestructible andare used in many leisure centres all over the world.

Mrs S Davies is the head coach of Glamorgan artistic roller dance club and she is qualified to teach up to gold medal standard, the only person in the UK with this qualification.

She is assisted by a five coaches and many parents to run this very successful club with 80 members.

At present they train at Colcot Sports Hall on Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm and Sunday morning 10am to noon.

The Colcot Sports Hall floor is too small for the members to express their undoubted talents as is shown in their trophy cabinet.

The skaters need a floor space the size of Barry Leisure Centre to compete with other clubs all over the country.

All the skating clubs competitions are held in local authority owned leisure centres so they must be OKokay for roller skating.

I am sure that with a little effort some money can be found for these kids to express their talent and enjoy the sport.

I think that the Mrs Davies and her team have been very patient and need to be given a chance to use this facility and develop the club.

Cyril Roberts

Owain Close

Penarth