Leisure centre users across Gateshead have been urged to have their say on plans to shut some facilities down – even if theirs is not expected to be under major threat.
Gateshead Council has proposed shutting two of its leisure centres as it tries to cut costs. The two sites currently earmarked for closure are Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swimming Centre, though both have been given a reprieve until the summer to allow for rescue talks and extra public consultation.
But, with the local authority having already changed its mind once about which centres to shut, council leader Martin Gannon has appealed to all of the borough’s residents to make their voices heard.
The leisure centres in Blaydon and Heworth, for example, have not been named by the council as being at the highest risk of closure – but are still included in the budget-trimming exercise. Dunston Pool and the Birtley sports hall, on the other hand, were initially among the group earmarked for closure last year but were seemingly saved when revised plans were published in January.
Amid outrage over the closure plans and passionate campaigns to keep centres open, almost 7,500 people responded to a first round of public consultation last year – and a further 1,000 have already added their voices in the second round, which will run until May 8.
Warning that the council, which says it will need to make savings of approximately £55m over the next five years, cannot continue to “indefinitely” subsidise loss-making leisure centres, Coun Gannon said: “I have committed nearly £1m of council reserves to extending the leisure services review. As a local authority we now have £970 less per household to spend and an increasing number of residents reliant on council support.
“While I appreciate that users of the leisure centres will be thrilled to have had the decision to rationalise our leisure centres delayed, we will be unable to sustain further subsidy from our reserves indefinitely, which is why it is important that we hear from all leisure centre users who have not yet provided us with their views now and not just those who attend the centres most at risk of closure.”
The consultation can be completed online at this link.
There are hopes that any closures can be avoided if community asset transfers can be agreed to bring the at-risk centres into control of community organisations, rather than the council. Local authority bosses have argued that attempts since 2015 to make their public leisure services self-sustaining have failed and that they are expected to overspend their budget by around £2m this year, while also requiring £14.5m of maintenance over the next two decades.
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