It is no April Fool fitness classes at the Julie Rose Stadium will stop on April 1. People who attend the evening and weekend fitness classes, most of them from Willesborough and Kennington, expressed huge disappointment when they found out about the cuts earlier this week. People have voiced concerns that the community is losing out on healthy activities and the focus will be on elite athletics. The chairman of the stadium trust said he “regrets the cuts as we are a public facility.”

Meanwhile, Ashford Borough Council and the Julie Rose Stadium Trust (JRST) have still not reached an agreement about the stadium’s future and the two parties are blaming one another for the delay.

The future of the stadium is hanging in the balance as funding has been cut.

The cash-strapped council was unable to grant Ashford Leisure Trust, which runs both the stadium and the Stour Centre, sufficient funding. The stadium trust said unless the amount was increased the stadium would close.

More money has since been pledged by the council but in return for certain conditions, including the JRST handing over £25,000 of its £32,500 reserves to Ashford Leisure Trust, which the stadium trust had earmarked for new equipment.

It was expected that the two parties would sign an agreement at a meeting last Monday but additional conditions were put on the table which the chairman of the JRST said he was not in a position to immediately agree too.

For more on this story, see tomorrow's Kentish Express