Communities have been left in shock over plans to permanently close at least two leisure centres in Gateshead.
It emerged last week that cash-strapped council bosses are set to shut down facilities in a bid to urgently cut costs – with the Gateshead Leisure Centre in Saltwell and the Dunston Leisure Centre under greatest threat. The news has sparked dismay in areas that could lose beloved sites that have been enjoyed by families for decades, with thousands of people expressing their support for the at-risk centres.
Almost 5,000 signatories have backed a petition calling for the Dunston site to be saved, calling it “more than a leisure centre, it is part of the community”.
Read More: Two leisure centres in Gateshead at risk of closure after being deemed 'unaffordable'
The Gateshead Synchronised Swimming Club, the only one of its kind in the entire North East, has warned that the Dunston pool’s closure could force it to fold. The pool is the only one in Gateshead deep enough for the successful club to train in and chair Lena McLelland fears that they would not be able to find an alternative due to price and availability concerns.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are all absolutely devastated, we are still getting over the shock. We could close down because of this – synchronised swimming is a specialised sport and Dunston is the only place that has the depth we need. It closing down would mean devastation for our club.”
After the club returned with an eight-medal haul from the Scottish National championships last weekend, she added: “Gateshead has one of the highest levels of obesity in the country and they are talking about closing down swimming pools. I just don’t understand the thinking. I understand that the council has to make difficult choices, but they have to be fair choices.”
The facilities at Dunston and Saltwell have been deemed the two that “appear to be least sustainable”, after the council warned that its current leisure offer had become “unaffordable”. Local authority bosses, who have seen the council’s budget cut by £179m since 2010, say that Gateshead’s leisure services are due to overspend their budget by more than £2m this year and are planning to outsource all those that remain after these closures are decided on.
Mel Kakkar, a member of the new Save Leisure Gateshead group, said the closure of her local centre, which first opened in 1941 as Shipcote Swimming Baths, would be “absolutely tragic”. She added: “I cannot overstate how awful it would be for the community to lose the leisure centre.
"We all feel really passionately that it could thrive and that it has potential, the fact that it has not thrived is not about the community not wanting it. We really, really want the leisure centre and believe that under the right model and the right management it could do incredibly well.”
The 42-year-old, from Bensham, has called on the council to explain how the leisure centre is under threat of closure just over a decade after it underwent an £8m refurbishment and to outline exactly what repairs it now needs. She said: “We have hope, we need to be hopeful. We need to understand what is needed for the building, it is hard to know the answer without knowing the full facts about what is needed there.”
A council consultation on the controversial leisure centre plans began on Wednesday and will run until December 13, with a final decision expected in January. A series of in-person consultation events have been announced, to be held at:
- Birtley Leisure Centre, Friday, November 11, 10.30am to 12:30pm
- Birtley Swim Centre, Saturday, November 19, 9.30am to 11.30am
- Blaydon Leisure Centre, Thursday, November 10, 7.15pm to 9.15pm
- Dunston Leisure Centre, Saturday, November 19, 12.30pm to 2.30pm
- Gateshead Leisure Centre, Friday, November 11, 5pm to 7pm
- Gateshead Stadium, Thursday November 17, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
- Heworth Leisure Centre, Thursday November 10, 12pm to 2pm
Council leader Martin Gannon said that the authority “cannot continue to subsidise leisure services by £2m a year”.
Alice Wiseman, Gateshead’s director of public health, added: “We recognise that our leisure centres are extremely important to those who use them regularly and understand the impact that closures may have for these individuals. As director of public health, I can assure our communities that the council does not underestimate the importance of exercise and we are not taking this decision lightly – we have already carried out an extensive review of how our facilities are currently being used and I encourage everyone who uses the sites to take part in the public consultation, so that their views can also be taken into account and help shape the delivery of leisure services in future.
“Closing some of our sites will ensure that the leisure centres that remain open can offer more reliable and sustainable services – continuing to provide school swimming lessons, for example. Most importantly though, we know that the cost of using our facilities currently makes them inaccessible to an increasing number of our residents and sadly, these are the groups who need our support the most. We must focus our efforts and limited resources on helping as many people across all our communities as we can. Whilst no one would voluntarily choose to close leisure centres, the harsh reality is that without additional Government funding, there is no alternative option.”
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