Consultation on controversial plans to close Geateshead leisure centres to end

It is residents' last chance to have their say on plans to shut down leisure centres in Gateshead.

The consultation, which is being run by Gateshead Council, closes on Tuesday 20 December.

The proposals could see at least two of the town's leisure facilities closed, with Gateshead Leisure Centre and Dunston Leisure Centre having been named as those at greatest risk.

The proposals have proved controversial - with campaigners, sports clubs and MPs issuing warnings about the potentially devastating impact that the closures could have.

Layla Barclay, of the Save Leisure Gateshead campaign group, said: "This is the chance to influence the decision and to make sure that all of the different aspects of the closures are captured – health, social care, mental health, the environment.

"It is important to get your voice in the consultation and that every adult who can complete it does, so that the council understands the scale of it.

"It is not good just having a few hundred people doing it, they have to see the true scale of the amount of people this is going to affect."

The consultation exercise had been due to end on 13 December, but was extended by a week so that almost every household in Gateshead would have time to receive a council magazine detailing the proposed closures. The consultation is available online here.

Campaigners are due to stage a protest outside Gateshead Civic Centre ahead of a council cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, ahead of the consultation ending.

A final decision on the leisure centres’ future is due to be made in January.

More than 200,000 people use both the Gateshead and Dunston centres every year, with the huge complex in Saltwell being the best used in the borough.

Dunston is also home to swimming and synchronised swimming clubs who have both warned they would likely be forced to shut down if the pool was closed.

The council has said it can no longer afford to run all of its leisure centres, at a time when it expects to have to cut £55m from its spending in the next five years, as they are currently running significantly over budget.

A report in October warned that the size, condition, and age of the facilities means they are not energy efficient and require essential maintenance work totalling a minimum £13.3m over the next decade, £9.1m of which is at the Gateshead Leisure Centre.

Alice Wiseman, the council’s director of public health, said: "Residents in our borough face many challenges and, now it’s turned colder, alongside the cost of living crisis, we know that even more people will be struggling with heartbreaking decisions between hearing and eating which will have an immediate impact on their physical and mental health.

"As a local authority, while we have a duty of care for all residents, with significantly reducing resources, we must prioritise those who need us most.  

"In the current climate we sadly cannot continue to sustain our leisure services in its current form and we are having to consider the potential for rationalisation of the service.

"Physical activity is fundamental in keeping us physically and mentally healthy and our residents have talked to us about the ways they do this which ranges from walking and cycling through to organised and structured gym classes and swimming.

"As a council we remain committed to helping our communities stay fit.

"One of the understandable concerns we’ve heard is around access to children’s swimming lessons; pools play a vital role in teaching children a vital life skill of swimming and water safety and school swimming lessons will continue to be a priority of the council no matter what the future of the service looks like. 

"Exercise must be accessible to all and four in ten of our residents tell us they do not have the disposable income to access our current leisure offer.

"In order to address inequalities, we must focus our efforts on providing more accessible, inclusive and affordable opportunities to exercise for all our residents, regardless of their circumstances."

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