The closure of two leisure centres in Gateshead could be signed off next week – but council officials have changed their minds about which ones should be axed.
Gateshead Leisure Centre, Dunston Leisure Centre, and the Birtley sports hall had been named as the sites under greatest threat of shutting down under council budget cut plans, which have sparked an outcry over recent months. But new documents now reveal that the authority’s proposals have changed, after a public consultation that generated more than 7,000 responses from concerned locals.
The large leisure centre in Saltwell is still earmarked for closure, having been deemed the greatest financial burden on the council’s struggling leisure services, but the other site now joining it on the chopping block is the Birtley Swimming Centre. The Durham Road pool has now been deemed the second most unsustainable in the borough, in a revised study.
