Community aghast over move to evict beloved gym

Lynne Burroughs has been teaching gymnastics for 40 years. Photo / Dean Purcell

For more than 40 years, Lynne Burroughs has brought her gift - teaching gymnastics to children - to a building in Ponsonby which itself was a gift to the people of Auckland to use as a gym.

But last week, the chalk trembled in her hands as she wrote the notice: "From March 9 the gym will not be used as a gym as the council has asked for the removal of all equipment as they are leasing to other occupancy."

The sign prompted a wave of protest to Auckland Council by the parents of the 60 children who attend Mrs Burrough's recreation classes for preschoolers and 5-years-and-overs.

A petition is being raised to call on the council to let Mrs Burroughs' classes and her gym gear remain and a "Save Leys Gym" Facebook page has been started.

One of the leaders of the protest is actor Tandi Wright, of Nothing Trivial.

Her 3-year-old daughter, Olive, goes to the preschool classes.

"I love the gym," Wright said yesterday. "It's a challenging environment with kids of different ages, all doing their own thing.

"I've learned heaps from watching how [Lynne] teaches the little ones. She lets them do it in their own time but expects them to step up, and they do."

"At $5, it's affordable, which in this neighbourhood is not always the case and the parents are many cultures and from all walks of life.

"The parents talk while they watch the kids have a ball - it's a basic building block of community."

Los Angeles-based stuntwoman and actor Zoe Bell took lessons at Leys Gym as a teenager.

"You have my full support - just let me know what I can do," Bell wrote in an email to the protest.

As a result of the show of support, Mrs Burroughs said she would meet officials this week to talk about ways to keep classes in the building, which was built next to the Leys Institute Library complex in 1906 from a bequest made by William Mason.

The trust running the complex handed it over to Auckland City Council in 1964.

Mrs Burroughs, aged 69, and husband Warren have a life-long association with the gym. They went there as children and he taught competitive gymnastics until suffering ill health.

"We used to have classes seven days but we've cut it back to four," she said.

"I enjoy it and all I want is to just keep going and for the gear - fund-raised by the parents - to stay and be used by anyone for gym."

The Leys Gym is an example of 400 leases on or in council-owned land and buildings that are up for review or renewal.

"The aim is to provide common arrangements across the region that are fair and transparent," said regional development and operations committee chairwoman Ann Hartley.

"Currently, there is a myriad of different arrangements inherited from the seven former councils and we need ... some clarity and consistency."

The Ponsonby Community Centre will take over managing the gym building. Waitemata Local Board chairman Shale Chambers said the building had not been on a formal lease for years and the board wanted community leases that had to open unused time to other groups.