Staff Link centre up with power to get doors open again (From Swindon Advertiser)

Staff Link centre up with power to get doors open again

6:00pm Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Local By Matthew Edwards

Operations manager Di Milner with staff Kim Bedry, Ann Harold, Tom Folding, Chay Cryans, Ben Snook and Charlotte Harding at the Link Centre

STAFF power has ensured that the closure of the Link Centre was limited to only a day.

The centre re-opened yesterday morning after an electrical fault forced it to close on Tuesday.

Staff worked through the night, installing a one megawatt generator and yesterday morning the Link Centre and West Swindon Library were re-opened for business.

The only exception to this was the health suite at the Link Centre which will be closed until further notice because of the amount of energy it uses.

The council did not think it was appropriate to be used while a generator was providing the power.

A small electrical fire on Monday night to the main circuit board resulted in a major power failure, but staff helped to ensure that disruption was kept to a minimum, being on site to deal with customers who had not heard about the closure and manning the phone lines.

The centre was expected to be busy on Tuesday because of half-term and it is estimated the closure will have cost the centre between £6,000 and £9,000.

Councillor Keith Williams, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Corporate Services, praised the work of the council employees in dealing with the situation.

He said: “It is good news that the Link Centre is back open.

“We had staff there all day on Tuesday dealing with customers who may not have known about the closure and people have been working through the night to ensure the centre was open yesterday.

“A replacement part for the main circuit board is being sent and should be here in a week. In the meantime we have a generator.

“We were expecting it to be busy on Tuesday with it being half-term and it has probably cost us between £6,000 and £9,000.

“The staff were excellent and I want to thank them for being on hand to offer support to users who turned up on the day in what were difficult circumstances.”

The building, opened in 1985, has had a chequered history of late and only last year the council agreed to invest £1million to fix a leaky roof.

In 2010 a pensioner had a near-miss when a roof tile fell into a dance hall.

Coun Williams said that the council would continue to invest in the ageing centre to ensure it is a safe facility to use.

He said: “The Link Centre is an old building, so it is going to have small problems like this.

“We invested £1m in a new roof last year and the council are always investing money into the Link Centre to ensure it is in good order.”