Fresh hope for two of Cornwall's leisure centres still at risk of closure
The council says it is continuing to work with potential operators to save Falmouth and Wadebridge
Last updated 26th Jan 2022
Cornwall Council says that it is continuing to work with potential operators looking to takeover two leisure centres under threat of closure.
Last year the council announced that four leisure centres and a hydrotherapy pool were at risk of closure after operator GLL said it could no longer afford to run them without financial support.
Since then GLL has decided to continue operating Saltash Leisure Centre whilst the council has agreed to provide funding to allow Launceston Leisure Centre to operate until January 2023 when its lease for the centre ends. The reprieve will allow owners to find an alternative provider.
However Ships and Castles Leisure Centre in Falmouth and Wadebridge Leisure Centre are both still under threat of closure, along with the hydrotherapy pool in St Austell.
The council has said that there have been several expressions of interest from organisations who would like to run the two leisure centres and that work is continuing with them.
Richard Pears, Cabinet member responsible for leisure, gave an update to the council’s customer and support services overview and scrutiny committee today.
He told councillors that the council was working with those which had submitted expressions of interest to draw up business cases which would be presented to Cabinet in due course.
Cllr Pears said that while they were still under threat of closure at the end of March he hoped that the council could "find a way forward".
The hydrotherapy pool in St Austell, which has been closed for some time, is still at risk of permanent closure but Cllr Pears said that work was continuing to find ways to keep it open.
He said: "We are investigating operations with alternative providers and we are also investigating potential funding streams from the NHS and other organisations.
"One of the issues we have is that we have a hydrotherapy pool which is to a large extent for medical use but comes under leisure.
"We need to find ways to make that operation effective. The numbers of people using it even before covid were extremely low and with the increase in energy costs the cost of the facility was rising up and up.
"But we have some interesting things in front of us on the table and we will progress those and bring them to Cabinet for consideration".
Leisure centres across the country have been hit hard by the covid lockdown which saw them closed for a considerable period.
Since reopening they have struggled to get the number of people using them back to the levels seen before the pandemic.
However the possible closure of the centres saw many people across Cornwall objecting and holding protests and organising petitions against the move.