Mass protest over climate crisis and possible leisure centre closures in Cornwall
Dozens of campaigners staged action outside County Hall in Truro
Last updated 30th Nov 2021
Campaigners in Cornwall have staged a mass protest over the climate crisis and potential closure of leisure centres.
Protestors gathered outside County Hall in Truro on Tuesday (24th November) amid concerns over the potential closure of five sites across the Duchy and also Cornwall Council's environmental spending.
School aged children in swimming hats, along with community and environmental groups all joined the protest ahead of council discussions over the proposed leisure centres closures, funding and cuts.
Also being discussed at the meeting is a petition, which raked in over 5,000 signatures, to force a full council vote on the future of the at risk sites.
Five leisure centres: Wadebridge, Saltash, Launceston Leisure Centres, Falmouth Ships and Castle and the hydrotherapy pool at St Austell, are at risk of closure.
Ben Leach who works for Pendennis Leisure said he was outside the council meeting to bring forward a clear message about leisure sites: "It's an extremely complex situation - but the solution will be to continue to subsidise leisure facilities across the county."
Ben said other counties are offering this for centres post-COVID and thinks it should be in place in Cornwall.
He continued: "Leisure is so important for the health and wellbeing of our communities. It must continue to be subsidised in the short term, whilst we make better use of our services over time."
Sarah Conneth-Jones is an NHS worker who attended the protest and agreed that the community should come together to save something that is put in place to help local people.
She said: "I am angry that as a community we're supposed to be pulling together, we could be losing something that helps the community."
The protest involved speeches from coalition group campaigners about funding as well as school children who feel affected by potential leisure centre closures.
Campaigners gathered around holding banners and boards with messages about Cornwall's funding, the environment and continued swimming lessons for young people.
Sarah continued: "Our health facilities use things like the local leisure centres for cardiac rehab and my children learnt to swim at Falmouth leisure centre.
"How can we take that away from our children and our vulnerable population?"
Along with leisure centre campaigners, environmental groups including Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace also took place in the protest, warning of consequences if Cornwall doesn't meet its target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
Their concerns are that almost £500,000 of annual funding is being spent on airport subsidies for flights between Cornwall Airport Newquay and London Gatwick.
Erika Curren was protesting outside County Hall to call for more funding for environmental change.
She said: "I'm very very concerned about all the children, obviously my own grandchildren and child, nephew and nieces, but all the children for future generations. We're not doing enough to address this climate and ecological emergency."