Last day to have say on Cornish leisure centres under threat of closure
Cornwall Council's public consultation and young people's survey close on Sunday 31st October
Last updated 31st Oct 2021
There is just one day left to complete a survey on leisure services in Cornwall and tell councillors why they should keep centres open.
Cornwall Council is currently carrying out a public consultation on its leisure strategy which looks at how leisure services in Cornwall should be provided.
It comes after operator GLL indicated that it could no longer afford to operate five services – leisure centres in Falmouth, Launceston, Saltash and Wadebridge as well as the hydrotherapy pool in St Austell.
The council has said that it has no money to run leisure services and says that it is not a statutory service that they have to provide.
In their strategy the council says that all people in Cornwall should be able to drive to a leisure centre with a pool within 30 minutes.
People in the towns affected have been campaigning to save their local facilities and have called on the council to not close them down.
They have also urged people from all over Cornwall to take part in the consultation and warned that further services could be closed in future.
Recently, a protest was held at County Hall with people chanting and urging councillors to protect leisure centres and pools.
The event was held ahead of a meeting of the council’s customer and support services overview and scrutiny committee which had been due to have 17 questions from members of the public about the possible closure of leisure centres.
However a technical hitch meant that the meeting had to be postponed. It is now set to take place on Tuesday.
Cornwall Council has said that no final decision has yet been made on the future of the threatened services and says that it will consider the results of the consultation before making any decision.
The council's Cabinet is due to meet in December when a report on the issue is expected to be presented with recommendations about the way forward.
If the centres do close they could start to shut their doors forever from March 2022.
A survey has also been set up for young people to respond to the consultation – that can be found at Cornwall Council's dedicated webpage.
The consultation will close at the end of the day on Sunday October 31st 2021.