Leisure Centres closing in Gateshead today
Birtley Swimming Centre and Gateshead Leisure Centre to shut their doors
Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swim Centre will close today (21 July 2023) following a review of the Council’s leisure provision as agreed by Cabinet on 20 June 2023.
Government cuts to budgets are resulting in cuts to funding across all council services. As a result, providing all council-owned leisure centres is no longer possible with its limited budget. While it was a difficult decision to make, the closure of two leisure centres ensures that the council can continue to provide essential services for its most vulnerable residents.
All staff at these facilities will be redeployed at the remaining centres and there have been no compulsory redundancies across the leisure service.
The council will now move forward with the planned closures and continue to work with community groups. The two established Community Asset Transfer (CAT) groups interested in taking over the facilities will continue to be supported by the council as they work towards providing viable business plans for Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swim Centre. Although the CAT groups are working to different timeframes, both groups are committed to taking on the sites and seek to re-open the leisure centres as soon as is possible, if their business plans are viable.
To protect the closed leisure centres from any damage or anti-social behaviour in the meantime, the council has partnered its security contractor, Steadfast. Both sites will have security in place including CCTV and mobile patrols.
From Monday (24 July), temporary hoardings will be placed around the entire perimeter of both centres and all windows will be boarded up. The security arrangements will be reviewed regularly and adjusted as appropriate. It is important that the Council protects these facilities from damage and anti-social behaviour while the Community Asset Transfer groups prepare their business cases.
GoGateshead members will continue to have access to four state-of-the-art gyms, six swimming pools, over 100 fitness classes and two athletics tracks across Blaydon, Dunston, Heworth, Birtley Leisure Centres and Gateshead International Stadium. The remaining facilities now will now have additional staff and have longer opening hours with more access to public swimming, increased swimming lessons and fitness classes.
At each leisure centre, you can speak to the council’s experienced staff to request a fitness plan tailored to help you meet your personal goals, as well as to discuss membership options that suit your needs.
Cllr Angela Douglas, Cabinet Member for Culture “It’s devasting for us and the communities that these leisure centres close their doors today, we’ve been left with no choice. We can no longer afford to run the leisure centres and we must bring them in line with their forecasted budget. Our reserves we have are limited, unfortunately we cannot continue to use them to fund the leisure centres. We must focus on our most vulnerable residents and providing them with the best support possible to give them an opportunity to thrive.
We need to protect the sites and deter any acts of anti-social behaviour or vandalism. Ensuring security around the sites will mitigate potential delays to them reopening when the two CAT groups are able to reopen the leisure centres. I would encourage local communities to support the two groups who are working hard to keep these leisure centres as valuable community assets”
Alice Wiseman Director of public health “The closures today are heart breaking; the process has been robust, and we’ve not reached the decision without careful consideration. I recognise the impact this will have on our local communities and completely understand their concerns.
Across the borough we have residents living in desperate situations, we must prioritise the support that benefits the greatest number of people and those that need it most.
I recognise the concerns that our residents have about these closures being across the summer holidays, but we simply do not have the funding available to subsidise the leisure centres any longer. Through the summer holidays at our remaining leisure centres we have new swimming timetables, families with children in council ran swimming lessons can take advantage of free swimming sessions at one of our leisure centres. There is also a wide verity of fabulous community led activities, including Active Through Football, Active Mums, and community organised Park Runs which residents can take advantage of.