update1

A letter was also received on the 1st August 2002, contents of which read......

"...problems have occurred with people gaining unauthorised access to the outdoor shooting range.

Consequently, the purpose of this letter is to request that you secure the entrance to the range within
48 hours, or the council will, in the interests of public safety, undertake the works on your behalf...."

The first point, if not a serious matter, would be quite laughable. The main page of this site covers this matter more
fully, but basically, if we had the money which has been granted for refurbishment was available to us, there
would not be a problem. This sort of letter just touches on the problems the WSBRA has faced, and indeed the
mentality of the people we are dealing with here.

The other letter mentioned above should also be put into perspective.

This 'unauthorised access' is happening because the main doors to the range - and indeed the actual door frame -
were removed by council workers to allow access for machinery during their tree-felling work.

Users of the range will remember the very tall trees that were located behind the railings - on the stadium side of the
fence - that ran the length of the path behind the firing point.

These trees were cut down, and allowed to fall right onto the firing point roof!.

The roof has suffered severe damage, as has the rain canopy that was fixed to the firing point.

Apart from the damage caused, it would have been a simple matter of ettiquette to inform the shooters that such
work would be carried out. The doors and frame should have been replaced as a matter of course by the council
once the work had been completed, but as we have come to expect from these people, nothing was done.

It may be that their sudden concern over 'public safety' may be more to do with a letter that was sent to the council
by WSBRA , informing them that the main electricity supply box - used to power projects outside the rifle range but
installed on our site - had been subject to vandalism and was a serious risk to safety.

A comment from a leisure spokesman - Wolverhampton councillor Bob Jones - can be addressed here and now.
He states in the newspaper that 'the plans were drawn up after consultation with the different sports and the
City's Sports Advisory Council. These were then scrutinised and approved by Sport England'.

Total and utter garbage is putting it mildly.

Apart from our own immediate response to this statement; which if the expletives were removed would be of few words;
we received a 'phone call from another member of the Sports Advisory Committee representing a totally different sport -
who's response was the same as ours. They had read the article, and are as angry as ourselves at such a statement.

Sports Advisory Members were not involved, and continuous letters, enquiries, phone calls as to any progress
from many of the sports based at Aldersley were met with either silence, or were brushed off with next-to-
useless information.

The sports involved at Aldersley DID NOT get what they would have wanted - had they even been given the chance to
contribute - and we are now left with a 'Leisure Village' the council have deemed to 'design' for us.

Well, we too would ask people to visit the complex, and take a look at the rifle range.

What you will find is sickening. A facility starved of money it has been granted, but never received. A rifle range
that brought prestige to Wolverhampton through the voluntary work of its' members, and praise from national and
international quarters in which many councillors over the years were eager to be included.

You can see some 'impressive' pictures of the range below.

What should not be allowed to happen, is that this sorry state of affairs be allowed to fade away without serious
questions being asked - and answered in full - as to the funding, application for grants, and the subsequent spending
of this money at Aldersley.

Something is seriously wrong, and it should be addressed as soon as possible.