Gateshead leisure centres at risk of closure as residents 'can't be expected to pay' for membership

Gateshead Council is planning to close two leisure centres for good as the council leader warns residents are "on the absolute edge" and cannot be expected to pay to use facilities anymore.

Councillor Martin Gannon said difficult decisions to prioritise resources must be made.

He said: "Our residents are on the absolute edge. We are hearing from residents that are suicidal because they see no bright days ahead of them, they only see the cold and hungry days.

"Residents are accessing food banks in heartbreak because they’ve not eaten for two days and have not been able to feed their children. This isn’t just for today – we are going to see health inequalities in children worsen in future, as a result of malnutrition.

"When our residents have no food, no heating, no money in their wallet and no savings, we can’t expect them to pay for a membership to our leisure services."

The council said Gateshead Leisure Centre in Saltwell and Dunston Leisure Centre are the least sustainable and most likely to close, but said no decisions had been made.

The publicly-owned leisure services that remain open are set to be outsourced by the local authority.

Councillors were told on Tuesday 25 October that Gateshead Council had wanted to make its leisure centres and pools self-sufficient by 2020 but that such an aim was “no longer realistic” and they are “unaffordable” in their current state.

The council, which agreed to stop funding leisure services in 2015, said the target was missed due to the pandemic and increasing challenges brought by the cost of living crisis.

Cllr Jonathan Wallace, the council's Liberal Democrat opposition leader, questioned why Gateshead in particular has been left in this position.

He pointed out Newcastle City Council is about to start building a new leisure centre in West Denton, funded by a £20m Levelling Up government grant.

At yesterday's cabinet meeting, he said efforts to make Gateshead's leisure services more sustainable should have started "well over a decade ago", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It comes after Heworth Leisure Centre was shut for eight weeks over the summer due to staff shortages.

A public consultation on how leisure centre closures will impact residents will begin on 2 November 2022 and run until 13 December 2022.

A final decision is expected to be made in January 2023 after a public consultation, while a separate review of Gateshead Stadium will also be conducted.

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