A sports club for wheelchair users in Aberdeen is fearing for its future after the decision to close the Beach Leisure Centre.
Grampian Flyers Wheelchair Basketball, which was founded in 2013, has 30 members and runs both a senior and junior team.
After Sport Aberdeen’s funding was slashed during Aberdeen City Council’s budget on March 1, it was announced that the Beach Leisure Centre would close.
Richard Craig – a member of the club since it began – said that he and his teammates found out about the closure on Facebook and in the news and has been told that the club has only five weeks to find a new home.
He said: “We’ve been running around different sports centres and academies, and different facilities like that trying to find somewhere, but obviously they’re chock-a-block with their own clubs.”
‘We’re not just like a football team or a badminton team’
Both of the Grampian Flyers teams, including the juniors which is for those aged between eight and 15, train on a Monday night at different times, with the club using the facilities between 5.30pm and 9.30pm.
Mr Craig said trying to find a venue with one whole night free with only five weeks to move, describes it as a “dilemma”.
He said:Â “We’re not just like a football team or a badminton team where you’ve got a shuttlecock, you’ve got nets and your racket.
“We’ve got 30 basketball wheelchairs, we’ve got a container to hold them, we’ve got a cupboard that holds the junior chairs and we need a bit more than just what a football team or a badminton team might need.”
As well as having room to hold equipment and basketball wheelchairs, which members cannot take home because of their size and due to some not being able to drive, Grampian Flyers’ new facilities must also have parking spaces.
Mr Craig, who broke his back and was paralysed from the mid-chest down in a motocross accident, joined the club for a taster session and found a sport that he could play in a wheelchair and at a competitive level.
‘Suddenly it kind of feels normal to be in a wheelchair’
He thinks the club is especially important for the confidence of younger people, saying: “When they come to the basketball club there’s a whole team of people in the same situation as themselves and suddenly it kind of feels normal to be in a wheelchair.
“I think a lot of the kids that have come to the club, they’ve been the only person at the school in a wheelchair, so they’re very much singular, but when they come here they can all have a laugh and they’re playing with a teammate on the same level as themselves.”
Responding, a spokeswoman for Sport Aberdeen said: “We are actively working with all of the organisations who have been impacted by the news that we will cease to operate the Beach Leisure Centre from April 16.
“This is a complex process as we do our best to meet the needs of each organisation as best we can.
“We hope to be in a position to update the clubs and organisations of possible alternative arrangements in the next few days.”
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