UKC

Hi

Below is the agenda for the BMC Midlands Area Open Meeting to discuss the closure of the Rockface and the future of indoor climbing in Birmingham.

The meeting is open for all climbers and not just BMC members.

We are hoping for a large turn out to impress on Birmingham City Council and Advantage West Midlands the need for a premier climbing wall in Birmingham.

Birmingham City Council and Advantage West Midlands have been invited and Officers from The BMC will be present.

If you can't come and/or would like to contribute please email me chuckinver@aol.com

BMC Midlands Area Extraordinary Open Meeting
To be held at Fairbridge West Midlands, at 19.00, Thursday 11th of November, 2004

Agenda

1. Welcome by Graham Richmond (Chair BMC Midlands Area)

2. Health and Safety (fire rules). (Pete Stacey Fairbridge West Midlands)

3. Apologies for Absence.

4. Rockface Concerns.

5. Other Midland Walls (venues and availability. BMC Climbing Wall Directories will be available).

6. How The BMC Can Help With Building a New Climbing Wall.

7. The Future and What a Premier Climbing Wall in Brum should be.

8. Climbing Walls in the Melting Pot.

9. Whats Next.

10. AOB.

11. Nearest Pub and close of meeting

Please Note – All points and questions must be addressed through the Chair

Fairbridge West Midlands
126 /127 Cheapside, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 ZQA.

Map - http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&addr1=&a...

Agenda will also be available on the BMC website (hopefully)
If you want a copy by email chuckinver@aol.com

Regards

Charles Gameson
BMC Midlands Area Secretary

In reply to Charles Gameson: Simon has had to go 'server shopping' (whatever that means) so don't hold your breath for it to be on the BMC site.

Between a rock and a hard place Nov 9 2004




By James Cartledge, Evening Mail


Art student Nicola Church today emerged as the latest victim of the sudden closure of Birmingham's popular indoor climbing centre.

The 20-year-old had 11 abstract pieces worth at least £700 on show at the Rockface site when it shut last month.

Now Nicola has been reduced to banging on the disused centre's front door in a vain bid to discover when she will get her work back.

She said: "I was stunned when I heard the Rockface had closed down.

"I have tried ringing but the line just goes to a recorded message and now I have no idea what's happening.

"I want my work back because I'm attached to it and it was due back at the end of this month. I went to the centre over the weekend but nobody was there."

Nicola, from Redditch, heard the centre had closed down when her family read the news in the Evening Mail.

The Loughborough University fine art student's work had been on display since September. The arrangement happened when she approached Rockface staff after seeing art on show there.

The site, in AB Row, near millennium Point, closed suddenly on October 31. It was being bought by development agency Advantage West Midlands as part of the huge Eastside scheme.

But the deal was not due to go through until March and the city council - which is behind the Eastside scheme - said it could have stayed open for the "foreseeable future".

Climbers' groups are furious about the closure of the site, which has been described as the best in Europe and also catered for school and child-rens' parties.

A meeting to discuss the situation has been arranged for 7pm on Thursday at the Fairbridge youth organisation in Cheapside, Digbeth.

No one from the Rockface management team has been available to discuss the issue since the closure

Tears at Rockface axe Nov 8 2004


TWO devastated sisters who burst into tears after learning the landmark indoor climbing centre they loved had closed without warning are pleading for it to be saved.

Heartbroken nine-year-old Hannah Pritchard and Tess, aged eight, cried floods of tears after hearing Rockface at Millennium Point was to be flattened.

The Boldmere Junior School pupils, who visited Rockface twice a month, are so upset that they penned an emotional letter to the Evening Mail pleading for it to be saved.

Mystery surrounds the sudden closure of the centre, at AB Row, described as the best in Europe, earlier this month.

Advantage West Midlands is acquiring the land to be cleared by Birmingham City Council for the huge billion-pound Eastside development. But the deal was not due to be completed until March.

Tess and Hannah's mum, 40-year-old housewife Jennifer, of Western Road, Sutton Coldfield, whose 45-year-old husband Steve is a management consultant, said: "The girls are absolutely distraught."