Campaigners desperate to save Gateshead’s leisure centres from the “tragic” threat of closure are calling for a decision on their future to be pushed back.
Council bosses have been urged to delay a verdict that could see at least two of the town’s leisure facilities shut down after being deemed too expensive to run. The Gateshead Leisure Centre in Saltwell, the Dunston Leisure Centre, and Birtley’s sports hall have been identified as those at greatest risk from the budget-cutting proposals, which have provoked outrage among locals.
Gateshead Council chiefs have insisted that, unless the Government is willing to step in with funding to secure the sites’ future, they will have “no option” but to decide to axe some of their leisure services at a meeting later this month. But opponents of the idea now want that ruling postponed, saying that the “huge public interest” in the future of the at-risk leisure centres warrants a vote at the local authority’s annual budget-setting full council meeting on February 23 – instead of being signed off by Labour cabinet members on January 24.
