Two successful swimming clubs boasting hundreds of members and decades of history will collapse if the leisure centre they call home is closed, it has been warned.
Both the Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club and the Gateshead Synchronised Swimming Club are facing doom if Dunston Leisure Centre is shut down. The site is one of those considered to be at greatest threat under budget-cutting plans from Gateshead Council, which are expected to see at least two leisure facilities shut down.
As campaigners have united in calls this week for the Government to step in with funding to save the beloved centres, the two clubs have made clear just how devastating the proposals would be for them. Stevie Speight, president of Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that Dunston’s ability to host galas is fundamental to his club’s survival.
He said: "If Dunston closes then that will probably be the end for us as a swimming club, a club that offers swimming to 200 people from the age of five up to their early 70s. It has the deep dive pool so we can train for race starts and we can host galas there, which we cannot host at another pool.
"The gala revenue props up our income and if we don't host galas at Dunston then we can't anywhere else, other local authorities will only factor in time for their own local teams and that is how swimming works. If we did not have Dunston, then we would have to charge people an unrealistic amount of money - we could not cover our coaching costs without it."
The club is said to be “working closely” with Gateshead Council to explore every possibility of saving Dunston, which has been deemed among the town’s least sustainable leisure services alongside the Gateshead Leisure Centre and the sports hall at Birtley.
For members of the synchro club, the situation is arguably even more bleak – as it is the only club of its kind in the entire North East, with the next closest one being in Leeds. The deep pool at Dunston is the only place in Gateshead suitable for them to train and efforts to find an alternative elsewhere in the region over recent weeks have proved fruitless.
The club’s chair, Lena McLelland, said: “If you take away Dunston and we can’t go anywhere else, the club will close. It is so sad. Our members are devastated, they are really worried about what is going to happen. The club is a safe haven for a lot of people.
“When we came back from Covid we had quite a few young people with emotional wellbeing issues because of the pandemic and we have helped them come through that. This is not just about swimming, it is more holistic than that.”
Both clubs have backed a joint call from the council, MPs, and local campaigners for the Government to provide funding that would protect leisure services, with fears that more than 100 pools across England could close over the coming months as the energy crisis piles pressure on already stretched budgets.
Mr Speight added: "Every single authority in the country has the same problem at the moment with the utility and operating costs. What we need is for the Conservative government to support us -- funding needs to be made available. This is a matter of public health. It is not just about leisure, it is about people's mental health too.
"This needs to go all the way back to Parliament and we need constraints on the funding given to the council so that it is not then spent across different budgets. You would not just be taking a swimming pool away, you would be losing the legacy of two swimming clubs that between them are 100 years old."
The potential closure of pools, which could be confirmed in January when the council makes a final decision, has sparked concerns about where children will learn to swim – though council bosses believe they could still accommodate all school swimming lessons at whatever pools do stay open, albeit that would make their timetables much tighter.
Alice Wiseman, the council’s director of public health, said: “One of the understandable concerns we’ve heard is around access to children’s swimming lessons; pools play a vital role in teaching children a vital life skill of swimming and water safety and school swimming lessons will continue to be a priority of the council no matter what the future of the service looks like.”
The Government has said that it has given an “unprecedented £1 billion to ensure the survival of professional sport and leisure sectors during the pandemic”. A spokesperson added: “This is on top of £6.5 billion made available to councils this year, including an additional £16 million for Gateshead Council compared to last year.”
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