Bohemia Village Voice

White Rock Playground.

By Julian Beecroft (Apr 2007)

The incident we reported in last month’s Village Voice involving local lads attacking a taxi driver’s vehicle has been followed by further reports to the police of trouble at both the Lidl store and the Shell Garage. The Voice went out to interview these lads at the beginning of March, and we soon came across a group of five teenage boys hanging around outside the Pizza Hut on Bohemia Road at about five o’clock in the afternoon.

BENCH

We asked them what life was like for them living around Bohemia. Immediately the answer came back, ‘There’s nothing for us to do. If we sit down on a bench, the police ask us to move,’ said one boy. Another chipped in, ‘Everyone always blames us for everything that goes on around here just ‘cos we’re the kids. But what’s the point of f*cking up your own area?’

SCHOOL

Two of the five admitted to being currently excluded from school, while another two said they were at college. ‘It’s a shitty area,’ added a third. ‘We want to play football, but there’s nowhere to play. Horntye Park used to let us play football on the astroturf until about a year ago, but then they stopped it,’ he claimed.

HORNTYE

The group then drifted off in the direction of Church Road, bouncing the football. We asked Horntye Park Sports Complex about the boys’ claims. Kevin Miller, the general manager, told us that the astroturf is available for anyone who can pay, and that if these kids had been using the facility without paying then it was without permission from the centre. He said that Horntye had experienced a range of problem behaviours from local lads, which included verbal abuse of the centre’s customers and general ‘loutish behaviour’.
PAY
We put it to Mr Miller that these lads couldn’t afford to pay to use a facility like Horntye. He conceded the point, but at the same time, he said, while Horntye is run as a charity, it is also obliged to maintain its building and services. He said that there are other resources available to local kids, which they could access at little or no cost, and he referred to us to the Active Hastings programme run by Cath Smee of Hastings Borough Council.

EXPENSIVE

The programme runs a range of sports and leisure activities for all age groups throughout the borough. Cath told us that the programme hires facilities all over the town. Horntye was too expensive, she said, so in this part of town the programme is based at the multi-use games area  (see picture, this page) next to the skateboard park at White Rock Gardens. There are currently two evening sessions at this facility that cater for teenagers. The first is a football-in-the-community programme for 10–19-year-olds that runs every Monday from 6.30 to 8pm.

The second is a structured coaching session for 10–16-year-olds every Wednesday between 4.30 and 6pm (the day and time we found the boys outside Pizza Hut). This can be football or basketball or whatever the kids want to play on any given afternoon. These programmes are free. Anyone can turn up and use the multi-use games area for free any day  until 9pm, providing the facility hasn’t been previously booked. Or you can book it for £15 an hour by phoning Ali Spriggs on 451334.

n Active Hastings 01424 451122.

Website: www.activeinhastings.org.uk

COMMENTS

Kevin Miller writes (May 2007)

Dear Sir, I cannot help but feel that Horntye Park came under fire in the April issue with regard to its rates for its sporting facilities. Cath Smee says we are too expensive and that the multi-user games area at White Rock is considerably cheaper. I wish to draw attention to the fact that the White Rock Facility is subsidised by the Council and is therefore paid for in part by your readers via the Council rates.

Horntye Park receives no money whatsoever from any external source and relies 100% on fees charged for its services.  Furthermore, I would add that people are comparing apples with oranges: the White Rock games area is at most only a quarter the size of our all-weather pitch, making the Horntye Park ground cheaper pound for pound, or per square foot if you prefer. Kevin Miller, Horntye Park Sports Complex.