Future of Gateshead Leisure Centres still uncertain after council reprieve
There's still uncertainty over the future of 2 Gateshead leisure centres - just days after they were given a 3 month extension.
There's still uncertainty over the future of 2 Gateshead leisure centres - just days after they were given a 3 month extension.
Gateshead Leisure centre and Birtley Swimming centre would have closed at the end of March - but the council has paused budget cut proposals.
Now there's set to be extra consultation with staff and users at Birtley - who didn't know they were at risk of closure til last week - as well as other council run centres, like Heworth, Dunston and Blaydon.
It is hoped that the delay will allow for progress on possible community asset transfers that would allow local people to take control of their facilities, which have been deemed unaffordable for the cash-strapped Gateshead Council to keep running.
Emotions ran high at a tense cabinet meeting on Tuesday as the decision was made, while campaigners furious at the local authority’s plans have vowed that they “will not stay quiet” amid “palpable anger” from residents.
Council leader Martin Gannon said that deferral would likely last until June, or possibly July, after May’s local elections.
But there are no cabinet meetings yet scheduled for the summer months so it is not known at this stage when exactly the Labour leadership could be asked to make their decision.
Councillor Gannon also indicated that a further deferral might be possible if an asset transfer was close to completion by the end of the three-month period, but warned that the council cannot keep putting off the verdict.
A council spokesperson said that “ the extension to the consultation will use £900,000 of council reserves and funds are not infinite and continuous extensions are not possible”.
Saltwell councillor Robert Waugh has been involved with talks about an asset transfer of Gateshead Leisure Centre to a group of as-yet-unnamed organisations. He told the cabinet on Tuesday that the extra three months gives those proposals a “real possibility of completion”.
Coun Gannon said that he believed that Dunston Leisure Centre represented the best chance of an asset transfer, with the Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club potentially being involved in running it.
The council said on Wednesday: “Throughout the initial consultation period the council has had discussions with community groups which have expressed an interest in taking ownership of the leisure centres through a community asset transfer. However, operating and maintaining a leisure centre is no small task and the council wants to ensure the community groups are fully prepared for the commitment they would be taking on.”
After the heated meeting on Tuesday that saw dozens of people turn out at Gateshead Civic Centre to protest the council’s plans, the Save Leisure Gateshead campaign group vowed that it “will not stay quiet” despite the proposal being paused.
The group said there was “palpable anger, passion and disbelief” among locals – with particular fears about the impact on the disabled and for the Orthodox Jewish community that relies on Gateshead Leisure Centre.
One resident, Sara Ballon, said: “Our Jewish community has relied on Gateshead Leisure Centre for many years to provide separate gender-only swimming times where all the children in the community have learned to swim over all these years – we would be devastated if we couldn’t have our local pool. We are the only pool in the borough to have gender-only times . . . all the other pools in the borough don’t have that facility.”