SURREY (NEWS 1130) — Concerned parents are gathering at Cloverdale Arena tonight, saying they’re not happy that plans for a new ice rink have been pushed back.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says the money just isn’t in the budget for it right now and it’s one of several projects that are being put on the back-burner to reduce the city’s debt.

Marty Jones has a son in minor league hockey and says they’ve often had to travel outside Cloverdale because there isn’t enough space for the kids to play. He sees the no-go on the rink by Surrey’s city council possibly as a broken campaign promise.

“We only have one solo rink for Cloverdale minor. We’re having to seek outside of the city of Surrey, which is for us is troublesome in a lot of ways, mostly because the increased cost that we see and that we’ll see in the future,” says Jones, who had to be in Langley with his son for a practice at 5:30 a.m. this morning.

“I really hope that the council and the mayor will reverse their decision because it’s really important to us. They ran their whole campaign on ‘Safe Surrey’ and to us, keeping our kids involved in sports is what keeps them safe, keeps them from trouble, keeps them from looking for other entertainment sources, and keeps them active.”

Last Tuesday, Mayor Doug McCallum announced a series of postponements to work on a number of facilities, including the ice rink, citing it is too expensive at the moment for the city to borrow money in order to fund projects.

— with files from CityNews Vancouver’s David Zura