Two leisure centres in Gateshead could be shut down after council bosses warned that services have become “unaffordable”.
It has emerged that the Gateshead Leisure Centre in Saltwell and the Dunston Leisure Centre are both in line to be closed for good, amid a funding crisis. The sports hall at Birtley Leisure Centre could also be under threat, though the town’s council leader has insisted that the closures are not yet a done deal, while the publicly-owned leisure services that remain open are set to be outsourced by the local authority.
Councillors were told on Tuesday morning that Gateshead Council had wanted to make its leisure centres and pools self-sufficient by 2020 but that such an aim was “no longer realistic” and they are “unaffordable” in their current state. Labour councillor Angela Douglas, the authority’s cabinet member for culture, sport, and leisure, said that “really difficult” decisions had to be made because of the crippling impact of Covid-19, the cost of living crisis, escalating maintenance and repair bills, problems with staffing, and ongoing economic uncertainty.
