A Wirral leisure centre’s chances of survival were given a major boost at a council meeting tonight.
Wirral Council needs to save £20m to escape the black hole in its budget for 2022/23.
The authority has proposed closing Woodchurch Leisure Centre down, before demolishing it, a move which would save the authority £402,000.
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But tonight’s meeting of Wirral Council’s most powerful committee, a cross-party committee called Policy and Resources, changed this proposal to give groups that might be interested in saving it until September 30 to come forward with plans to do so.
As well as providing more time for groups who may want to take over the running of the facility under a community asset transfer (CAT), Labour’s amendment also said that the £330,000 which would otherwise go towards demolishing the centre would be given to the group which wants to take over its running should their bid be successful.
The proposal to close the leisure centre has been highly controversial with some calling it “disgraceful” and thousands signing an online petition to save it.
After tonight’s meeting, the bulk of Wirral Council’s cuts plans remain, but groups who want to save facilities such as the leisure centre, but also two public golf courses and 11 libraries across the borough, will now have longer to come up with plans to save them.
Although it should be said that the plan to halve the amount the authority spends on school crossing patrols, also known as lollipop ladies, has been axed, as has the closure of coastal public toilets in towns including New Brighton and Hoylake.
Labour’s amendment was backed by the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and an Independent councillor, but Green Party group leader Pat Cleary voted against the amended budget plan.
Cllr Janette Williamson, Labour leader of Wirral Council, said this budget setting process was like no other in her memory and that the idea that these cuts are a political choice was “unsubstantiated” and something she found “offensive”.
The council leader said Labour’s motion mitigates some of the harshest cuts, and does not mean that other options to save more money cannot be explored.
Cllr Williamson added that the authority is doing what it can within the confines it was in, with the government watching it, as well as an independent panel, and the cuts it has been told to make.
Wirral Labour has frequently argued that the council has been forced to make the cuts it is proposing this year due to the fact that more than £200m has been cut from its grant from central government since 2010.
However, the Conservatives have tended to blame the council for managing its own resources badly and entering into risky schemes such as the abandoned Hoylake Golf Resort project.
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Two government reports into the authority, published last November, criticised councillors for being unwilling to take tough decisions and said the council needed to spend less on leisure services.
Cllr Jean Robinson, who represents the ward which covers Woodchurch Leisure Centre, wanted to thank everyone who had signed a petition to save the centre and asked the committee to pursue all the avenues it can in the period given tonight.
