Dear Sir,
My friend and I who are members of the Oak Leaf Sports Complex have being playing squash there on a weekly basis for over 25 years and are very well known to the staff.
We attempted to book a court for 5.30pm on Tuesday 9th July, but were told by the receptionist that this wasn’t possible because junior coaching was taking place at the same time even though two courts remained empty.
I asked a senior member of staff what particular threat we posed bearing in mind that children often run totally unsupervised throughout the squash court balcony area, changing rooms and toilets. Her response was to apologise simply saying there was nothing she could do as it was council policy for child protection reasons.
It would appear our Town Council’s maxim is ‘assume everyone is guilty until proven innocent’ as they seem to believe all adult squash players are prospective paedophiles or child molesters.
Whereas I very much appreciate the need to protect children from predators I question the quality of guardianship during the junior coaching sessions in that if the supervisor isn’t able to control all charges, then surely there should be more attendants on duty. This would allow fee paying members to also enjoy the facilities with consequential revenue received by the Complex.
Derreck Pinkney
Town Clerk Replies . . .
Junior coaching and mini-league takes place on a Tuesday from 16.15 until 18.15, aimed at 8-15 years and seeks to develop squash skills in a fun atmosphere.
The courts are closed to the general public during this time and have been so for approximately ten years. This decision was taken following an incident involving a junior attending the coaching and an adult player who were using the courts at the same time.
The situation was revisited at a later day and again the opening up of the two courts tried. Again, adult players complained that the younger people were over-enthusiastic and noisy. Therefore the decision was taken not to let the remaining two courts when junior coaching takes place.
Child protection is clearly part of this decision. However, this covers a greater area than cited in your correspondent’s letter. Child protection is not only in place to cover paedophiles and child molesters, but to protect the welfare of a young person, this is included in the Children Act 1989, which defines ‘harm’ as ill-treatment (including sexual abuse and non-physical forms of ill-treatment) or the impairment of health (physical or mental) or development (physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural).
The arrangements put in place are reasonable and appropriate to the circumstances.
A Bailey, Town Clerk
