Paul Watson, head coach of St Vincent's Boxing Club, talks about the club fighting for survival after Sheffield Council made it “caretakers” of a crumbling building and “put one obstacle in front of another”.
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00:00 Sheffield Council have been absolutely disgusting. They've made my life a misery for 10 years.
00:07 They've taken a club and actually just wrecked it and used me as a caretaker to look after
00:17 their building because it was getting wrecked. And they've done nothing but put one obstacle
00:22 in front of another in front of another. Then when they get to the end of it, start again.
00:28 So apparently it nearly cost me my life. I wanted them to come here and learn a trade,
00:34 get the GCSEs and do it all through sport. We'd have been probably one of the only ones
00:40 in country that did it. And now, it's just gone to pot. There's nothing left. They've
00:47 ruined the place. All the great ideas and everything that I had, it's just gone.
00:56 Yeah, and what's been the cost of all of this?
01:00 Financially to me, as an organisation, millions of pounds. It had been generated and was out
01:07 of pocket. Me personally, for thousands and thousands, Sport England's out of pocket by
01:16 80 odd thousand that was spent on here from them. But the time and money wise that I've
01:22 lost, I'd run into millions if I actually sued council for the amount of money that
01:26 they owe me.
01:27 What's been the cost on all of the club members that wouldn't have had all those opportunities
01:32 and things as well?
01:36 We went from this place being booming from when we moved to Soli Street and then moved
01:40 into We Are, to nothing. We've had two fights in three years because basically we've had
01:51 no way to train properly. We've been going all over the country out of my own pocket,
01:56 taking my lads to train at different gyms and to the spa in different parts of the country.
02:02 I pay for that. So this is what these don't understand. It's not just about boxing. It's
02:09 about I'm part of these kids' lives. I pay for it. So if I take them to spa somewhere,
02:21 it costs them. I take some of my kids to football matches. I took them out for me. It's not
02:28 just about boxing. It's about being part of their lives. It's upsetting.
02:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]