Broken boiler forces volleyball club to cancel games
Ancel Mitchell and Simon Elmore help run the volleyball club
- Published
A volleyball club has been forced to cancel games and training sessions after a broken boiler left a sports hall "unsafe" for players.
The Nottingham Rockets, which have been running since the 1960s, usually train hundreds of members at Southglade Leisure Centre in the city.
But after the Nottingham City Council-run facility's boiler stopped working about a month ago the team said the condition of the building had made the courts slippy and unusable.
All volleyball at the centre has been scrapped until further notice.
Simon Elmore, the club's safeguarding and welfare officer, said hot and cold conditions can lead to condensation on the courts, making the floor wet and unsafe to use.
"It's very, very unfortunate and there's not a lot we can do about it," he said.
The club hopes the boiler can be repaired soon so sessions can resume
More than 200 club members have already missed out on training for longer than a month with a number of fixtures forfeited, while they await repairs.
"It was a very strange situation where until the day or the time, the leisure centre couldn't make a decision as to whether they could run a session or not, or whether it was safe to do so," Mr Elmore said.
He added that the club's limited funding meant they did not have the option to pay to use facilities elsewhere.
Club treasurer Ancel Mitchell said the cancellations affected a number of junior league matches and a junior tournament.
"The juniors were very upset that they weren't able to partake in their fixture and we have a lot of adults who are keen to keep their fitness levels up in the run-up to Christmas and to play volleyball," she said.
A spokesperson for Nottingham Active, which runs the venue, says it has "explored interim arrangements while finalising a long-term fix."
"The repair process for the boiler system is taking longer than initially expected," they said.
"We are currently awaiting a start date from the contractors."
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