Concerns for the future of Gateshead Leisure Centre have sparked a “disturbing” rise in antisemitism, a local councillor believes.
The beloved centre has been earmarked for closure under controversial council budget cuts, though there are hopes that it can be saved by a local group bidding to take over the at-risk site. But Saltwell ward councillor Robert Waugh has spoken out to condemn claims “stirring up hatred against the Jewish people in our area”.
The Labour representative told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he had been troubled by allegations that the leisure centre land was being sold to members of Gateshead’s prominent Jewish community. Coun Waugh said that multiple residents had repeated the accusation to him during campaigning for next week’s local elections and that the number of antisemitic views he was encountering had become “noticeably different”.
