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.
Read More: Gateshead leisure centre closures - Council plans change as Birtley swimming pool now set for axe
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It just seems like it is going to close regardless. Everyone is really disappointed and angry.”
Many campaigners’ frustration on Wednesday night was exacerbated by news that Gateshead had been awarded £20m from the Levelling Up Fund to put towards building a new arena on the Quayside, after a bid which some claim should have been used to safeguard existing leisure facilities instead.
A report, compiled by Launchpad Research after more than 7,000 people replied to a public consultation on the closures, highlighted the importance of Gateshead Leisure Centre to the area’s large Jewish community and said that 41% of people who use the Saltwell facility travel to it on foot. The centre is the best used in Gateshead and boasts “unique” attributes including a soft play area, but has been earmarked for closure since last October due to its high running costs and need for substantial maintenance.
The council has claimed that its leisure centres “could actually create inequality” as they are not well used by the poorest in communities, but Mrs Barclay called that argument “insane”. She said: “We should have been finding a way for the most deprived people to get into leisure centres, not taking those resources away.
“This is levelling down – worse outcomes, worse health. Taking resources away is not the answer. It is like arguing that we should take dentists away because the people in greatest need don’t go to the dentist as much.”
Mrs Barclay added that this week’s turn of events was “awful” for users of the Birtley Swimming Centre, who had not thought their local pool was under severe threat from the initial proposals. Just 14 people attended a council consultation meeting at the Durham Road pool about the closures, compared to a combined 600 for the Gateshead and Dunston sites.
Wendy Arkle, another member of the Save Leisure Gateshead campaign, said: “I cried last night when I saw that report. I really did not expect it would come to this, especially given that the report takes into account all the things we have said.
“They have clearly listened and ignored us, that is what makes it even more sad. This will have a devastating impact on our community, myself, and my friends.”
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