A SHOW of strength is set to descend on the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council offices tonight (Thursday).

Members of the Basingstoke Ice Rink Users Forum are set to be out in force for a demonstration of support at the Civic Offices in a bid to show councillors the importance of the Leisure Park facility.

As previously reported in the Gazette, a campaign called #keepiceinbasingstoke has been highlighting users of the Planet Ice facility’s experiences and how important it is to them.

Ahead of a full council meeting tonight, rink users of all ages will head to the London Road offices and give councillors a taste of “what hockey players do when they don’t have an ice rink” by setting up a flash mob-style practice session using roller blades.

As previously reported in the Gazette. the forum praised long-term plans to keep a ice rink in the town, but a short-term plan for keeping a facility in the town while the redevelopment of the Leisure Park is being carried out is unclear.

NewRiver REIT Plc has said it would look to include a new rink in its £300 million refurbishment, not set to begin for a number of years , while Planet Ice, which runs the current rink which has a short remaining lifespan, said it would be happy to run a temporary rink if the borough council were to make land available.

Chair of the Ice Rink Users Forum Stewart Tempest said: “We are trying to force the issue of them identifying land on which to build a long-term temporary solution which they seem reticent to do.”

The Leisure Park development is unlikely to happen until the middle of the next decade, but structurally the current rink is not expected to last a significant amount of time.

Rink users will be outside the council offices at 5.45pm today (Thursday) ahead of the meeting at which Mr Tempest is set to speak at.

On Sunday, in a final push to gain as much support as possible, the Users Forum was in the lobby of the rink getting people to write on post-it notes the reasons they love the site and what impact it would have if it was to close.

With more than 500 post-its, the Users Forum hopes this will help in its argument to the borough council in a bid to find a temporary ice rink site.