Campaigners warn that Gateshead will be “levelling down” if council bosses press ahead with plans to close two leisure centres.
The Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swimming Centre could shut on March 31 if councillors decide to sign off the controversial proposals next week. Those two facilities have now been deemed the least sustainable of the cash-strapped council’s leisure services, after local authority bosses changed their minds and recommended that the Dunston Pool and Birtley sports hall be saved from closure.
Ahead of Gateshead Council’s Labour cabinet meeting next Tuesday to decide on the plans, locals are still pleading for a way to keep the sites open and avert “devastating” consequences for people’s physical and mental health. Layla Barclay, of the Save Leisure Gateshead campaign group, said it was “heartbreaking” to read a massive report published ahead of the crunch meeting, which details the scale of opposition to the closures.
