LETTER: Wakeboarding opponents are not killjoys

In reply to Mr Garry Smith from Cyprus stating in March 22nd’s Express that residents in Burnley don’t understand the proposed wakeboarding facility, I have to tell him that, on the contrary, we understand only too well what the implications will be for Rowley Lake.

Has he visited Rowley? The Burnley climate is very different from the warm weather and seas of Cyprus.

He mentions the towers, the cable tow, the machinery and noise. This is our objection. And £20 per hour is for those with deep pockets.

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According to Mr Smith, wakeboarding is the Holy Grail that will entice youth from keyboard to wakeboard. If football, cricket, basketball, rollerblading, swimming, gymnastics (at a multi-million pound leisure centre), tennis, sailing (at Clowbridge), Zumba, bootcamp, boxercise, walking, cycling, jogging and riding can’t do the job, then parents might take a hand, but, let’s face it, wakeboarding is a pricey niche sport unlikely to do anything for the more deprived section of local youth.

I must comment that officials are talking as if this is a done deal, despite huge local opposition. Is Garry Smith their consultant? Is the forthcoming consultation a mere sham, a veneer over the council’s true intentions. The planning decision has still to be made.

We opponents are not nimby killjoys. We do not want Rowley ruined. Other sites are surely more suitable – Clowbridge or the small lake near Unity College, near a road and pay and display parking.

To inflict wakeboarding in a peaceful spot like Rowley is as appropriate as a Formula One track round Windermere.

JEAN WILSON

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