Ice Skating: News and views

On the 3rd  February 2010 the regular Wednesday evening public session has been taken by ice hockey also make a note that the public session has also been taken on the 17th February. 

I note that no mention of this has been posted on the Link Centre section of the council's website. This will mean that there will inevitably, be some visitors who will arrive for what they have seen on the ice rink timetable as a public session only to be turned away, disappointed. We don't think that the neglected opportunity to inform the public that the ice has been allocated to ice hockey on these public sessions is an accident. The Wednesday night public session is the only evening session in the week suitable for adults and youngsters who find disco sessions too crowded. No, it is not an accident, we feel that it is a deliberate decision by management to deter the general public from using the ice rink. The reason being that  ice hockey brings in more revenue. The introduction of the so called "New Ice Timetable" is another attempt to destroy skating at Swindon. This timetable has replaced the hockey time slots with the term "Club".This has been done to conceal the fact that most of the ice rink timetable has been allocated to ice hockey. Swindon Link Centre Ice Rink can now not be accused of descriminating against the general public as it is not apparent from the ice rink timetable that ice hockey takes the lion's share of the available ice time.

A copy of the old timetable is below:

New ice rink timetable below:

Nice company! but nice ice? No.  The ice should be resurfaced before each session. It is important to provide nice resurfaced ice. That's what users should expect. At least there were no pot holes caused by triple salchow jumpers -that we usually help to fill.  It's bad technique to make a big hole in the ice when jumping. But if you do, it is only polite to fill the hole. The resurfacing machine won't fill it, except with water.

But as I said before very nice company and seasonal music. One of the magic moments of ice skating is gliding with little effort on a pristine surface. Although that beautiful surface only lasts for as long as the time it takes to cut it up it is a pleasure to look forward to.

Not only are we faced with losing several public evening sessions at the Swindon Link Centre in which there are the two 15 minute weekly dance intervals, but we are also faced with the staff's inabilty to find the music for the dance intervals!

This isn't the first time that the music has been misplaced. It seems that if our regular ice steward is away the rest of the staff can't find the music. Surely there should be an agreed procedure to deposit the music in the same place in the ice rink box office and someone should also check that the music has been returned.

I have received a message from someone who had written to the ice ink manager at the Link Cente. The manager has not replied to the complaint about cancelling the evening session that includes two dance intervals. Possibly he has passed the complaint up to the Link centre management. Or, so what, ignore the complaint. Isn 't the management entitled to make decisons about how the time is allocated? Especially when ice hockey is sponsered and this money helps to keep the link center going. Everyone knows that the ice rink subsidises all the other activities. So don't upset the sponsers. NPower. Maybe NPower have a view on this? I have a view.

Where did the money come from? Was some of the money allocated from central funding? Can the Link Centre operate independently of local authorities? Why should Swindon have an ice rink when they discriminate against adult skaters who not only live in Swindon but also may live close by, but in Wiltshire or Oxfordshire? 

If the Link centre does not think that it discriminates against adulks and those who live locally, but in Wiltshire or Oxfordshire then they have the opportunity to say so!

The Swindon Link Centre's ice rink has just one session that is suitably scheduled for adult skating. This session also has two dance intervals. If the session is cancelled not only are adults deprived of their opportunity to skate for that week but also the ice dancers lose their opportunity to practice ice dance.

Fortunately, it is rare that there is a technical reason to close the rink. But it has happened before that the only public session that has two dance intervals on Wednesday evenings has been lost to enable a ice hockey match to take place.

The management could and I think should have arranged for the match to take place during time that is allocated to ice hockey. Instead they have taken the only public session that adults and ice dancers have.

There is time allocated to ice hockey every single day of the week both in the evenings and during the day at weekends. so I cannot see any reason why the match could not have been arranged during that time.

There has been no published warning of this cancellation and many ice dance skaters come a long distance to skate at Swindon Ice rink. Although there is a large number of skaters who come every week, some do not. These skaters are likely to come and be doubly disappointed; losing both their opportunity to skate and the cost of travelling to the ice rink.