Village Voice No 291 February 2017
Melbourne & District
GYM CLOSURE A BLOW FOR TOWN
l Melbourne-based group Stage Left Drama take a bow for their performance of Cinderella at the Robert Ludlam Theatre in Derby. Report on Page 9.
by Lucy Stephens
MORE than 100 children and adults who were regular users of Melbourne’s gym have been left having to find a new place to go after it suddenly shut.
Picture of Health Fitness Studio on Derby Road had been a meeting place for local groups such as Oakden Dance Academy and Melbourne Joggers, as well as its regular membership, who were all left stranded after it closed its doors with no advance notice on January 27. The reasons for the closure have not
been made clear. Mandy Gregory, who runs Oakden Dance Academy, was left trying to find an alternative venue for 60 children who attend her Saturday morning class. Only the day before the gym shut, a new floor was being installed – the previous one having been damaged in last May’s flood. Mandy said: “It’s a shame. There’s no hall that we can have every Saturday in Melbourne. We have now got to find somewhere to teach every Saturday – it’s not brilliant.” Oakden is a freestyle dance school set up by Mandy’s parents and has been going for nearly half a century – 44 of those years in Melbourne. Mandy said she had managed to find
SHOP Locally
--
YOUR LOCAL CONVENIENCE STORE
• • • • • • •
MONTHLY SPECIAL OFFERS NOW SELLING BEERS, WINES & SPIRITS CHILLED AND FROZEN FOODS SANDWICHES, SNACKS & SOFT DRINKS TOILETRIES AND HOUSEHOLD GOODS CHOCOLATE AND CONFECTIONERY BIRD SEED AND PET FOODS RY ELIVE
DOVES O S Garages LLtd. td.
LD LOCA FREE
OPEN: Mon - Fri 8am - 5pm Sat 8am - 3pm
HIGH STREET, MELBOURNE Tel: 01332 862123
some halls to meet in over the next few weeks, including the Catholic Church Hall and the Wesley Hall – and she thanked those organisations for accommodating her at short notice. Melbourne Joggers, which was set up in 2009, has met at the gym for the past seven years and currently has around 40 regular attenders, was also left having to find a new place to meet on Tuesday evenings. Picture of Health was set up in a former shoe factory in 1999 by Laura and Dave Middleton, who ran it for 12 years, since when it has changed hands at least twice. Laura, now manager at Breedon Priory Health Club, said the loss of the gym was “really sad” for Melbourne.
“It was a good facility, and it’s a shame that it’s gone,” she said, adding that she was now seeing quite a few former Picture of Health members coming to Breedon having lost their local gym. One of those is Dick Carlier – who was to have completed a sponsored workout to mark his 80th birthday at Picture of Health and is now doing it at Breedon. Dick said he had been a member of Picture of Health for 18 years since it first opened. “I’m very disappointed,” he said. “I’ve been a regular user of the gym for 18 years and it’s part of my life. As a nondriver, it means I have difficulty in going anywhere else.” n See Page 18 for Dick’s sponsored workout story.
TV - DVD RECORDERS HIFI - TUMBLE DRYERS WASHERS - COOKERS FRIDGES - MICROWAVES VACUUM CLEANERS KETTLES - TOASTERS ALL AT...
6 MARKET PLACE, MELBOURNE TELEPHONE: 01332 862607 www.blatchs.co.uk email: sales@blatchs.co.uk
newton fallowell
raising the standard of estate agency
INSIDE STORIES
MELBOURNE ESTATE AGENTS Residential Sales and Lettings Tel: 01332 865696 Melbourne: 01332 865696
Makeover for the Assembly Rooms – Page 3
Getting a tune out of bagpipes – Page 6
Badgers’ big day at Pride Park – Page 20
MG
elbourne arage
MoT TEST CENTRE SELECTION OF WORKSHOPS AND OFFICE SPACE TO RENT Castle Lane, Melbourne, Derby DE73 8DY Telephone 01332 862373
www.melbournevillagevoice.co.uk ● news@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk 01332 863181 ● ads@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk 07584 025 852 Where sold: 30p