Gateshead Council's argument for closing at least two leisure centres is "riddled with problems", furious campaigners claim.
Local authority chiefs have warned that some beloved facilities are set to shut down after being deemed "unaffordable", with the Gateshead Leisure Centre in Saltwell and the Dunston Leisure Centre being at greatest risk.
News of the closure plans has sparked a public outcry, with thousands of people signing petitions to try and save the centres.
Read More: Passionate members of Dunston community have their say on potential closure of their leisure centre
Council bosses have now been accused of "inconsistencies" and having "no evidence base" for the analysis that judged which facilities are the least sustainable.
It has been argued that Gateshead Leisure Centre needs more than £9m of repairs over the next decade and will need £684,000 of council cash to prop it up in the current financial year, while Dunston needs £1.3m for maintenance and £557,000 worth of subsidy.
Rosie Lewis, from the Save Leisure Gateshead campaign group, condemned the local authority's approach to the impending cuts at a Gateshead Council meeting on Thursday.
The 26-year-old, from Saltwell, asked the council how the ongoing public consultation on the future of the centres would be assessed and how its responses would be weighted. She also asked if the council would review the financial methodology that declared the Saltwell and Dunston sites the greatest burden on the cash-strapped authority's finances.
Calling the council's response "really poor", she said: "This whole argument of 'we don't answer questions we just talk about cuts' is not an answer.
"That financial review was riddled with problems, there was no evidence base. There are people in our campaign who work in finance who have said there are lots of holes in it".
Gateshead Council has deemed its existing leisure offer “unaffordable” and say the services are due to overspend their budget by more than £2m this year.
The community group allege the methodology used to compare the leisure centres was inconsistent.
Labour councillor Angela Douglas, the council's cabinet member for culture, sport and leisure, denied the accusation.
She said: "In response to your question, all responses submitted to the consultation survey will be analysed and a full consultation report will be submitted to the cabinet. Feedback and all questions asked in the survey will be included.
"This will be published on our website and will be publicly available. Themes emerging from the answers for each centre will be added to the evaluation criteria using the previous cabinet report and form part of the final evaluation.
"The weighting used will be similar to the previous evaluation but we cannot at this stage determine the additional criteria we will use for the final weighting.
"We don't believe there are any inconsistencies within the evaluation matrix but if any are revealed during the consultation we would correct them and make it clear in the next cabinet report."
Coun Douglas added: "This is not a position we wanted to be in, however the council budget has been cut by £179m over the last 12 years and we have now been informed we will be cut by a further £55m over the next five years.
"Adult and children services are coming under increasing financial pressures at a time when many of our residents need extra support because of the cost of living crisis. As a result, we must make some difficult decisions."
Coun Douglas said that no decision had yet been reached. The public consultation on the leisure centres will come to an end on December 13, with a final decision on the closures due in January.
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