Two Gateshead swimming clubs that faced disaster if their pool was shut down are “absolutely elated” with news that it is set to be saved – but another group is now fearing for its future instead.
Both the Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club and the Gateshead Synchronised Swimming Club had warned that they would collapse if Dunston Leisure Centre was closed, as had been mooted under Gateshead Council budget cut plans. But it emerged this week that the local authority has had a change of heart and recommendations being put to the council’s Labour cabinet next week no longer have the Dunston Bank site on the chopping block.
That has come as a massive relief to the clubs based there, who made clear that the depth of Dunston’s pool and its ability to host galas made it critical to their survival. However, six miles south, the mood is quite different. Birtley Swimming Centre is now facing the prospect of closure on March 31 instead, alongside the Gateshead Leisure Centre, much to the shock of Birtley Amateur Swimming Club members.
Club secretary Dean Cox, who has been part of the club for more than three decades, now fears that it may not survive to celebrate its 50th birthday in 2024. After finding out about the pool’s possible closure just days before council bosses deliver their verdict on Tuesday, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “At the moment, we don’t know if the club will survive. Everyone is totally gutted.
“We feel like this has just been delayed to so late in the day that it is nigh on impossible for the club to respond.”
While Durham County Council has plans to build a new leisure centre in nearby Chester-le-Street, Dean worries that getting there via bus would be difficult for some of the club’s 120 active swimmers. Just 14 people attended a recent council consultation meeting at the Durham Road pool about the council’s plans, compared to a combined 600 for the Gateshead and Dunston sites which had been deemed to be at highest risk of closing and have been the subject of campaigns to save them since October.
For Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club president Stevie Speight, however, the council’s new proposals have come as a “tremendous” relief. He said: “It is really positive for us, really positive for the synchro club, and really positive for the community.”
Lena McLelland, chair of the synchro club, found it impossible to secure space at any of the few other North East pools with the required depth for her swimmers to train safely and said she was “absolutely elated” to hear that Dunston is likely to be saved. The clubs there are now left contemplating whether to press ahead with talks about a community asset transfer that could see them involved in running the pool long-term.
Lena added: “If there isn’t a community asset transfer, then the council is going to find a private operator for the pools that are left. One way or another, the council just can’t afford it.
“But we are absolutely delighted because we tried every other pool in Tyne and Wear that would be deep enough for us and safe for our swimmers, but none of them could fit us in. The club would have folded, but now we instead have more time to sort something out [for the long-term future of the pool], which is great.”
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