Anyones local council closing leisure centres?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

It's been announced that our local leisure centre is running at such a loss that the council is pretty much going to close it.

It's a massive centre, 3 pools, gym, lors of separate rooms for workout classes, Slimming world etc. It has a large ish soft play, basketball courts, squash etc.

Every time I go (minimum once a week), it's heaving - its very well used.

It used to have a cafe which never reopened after covid, and they are continuously having staffing issues. It's smack bang in the middle of a well built up area (mixed incomes but large proportion on the lower end on the income scale), at least 5 local primary schools use it for school lessons that they access on foot.

They insisted in the past that the service is "use it or lose it" and its being used A LOT.

I can't imagine it not at least washing its own face in terms of finances. I just don't get it. I know costs to keep buildings open, pools heated etc, but what's the alternative? No leisure provision for the whole area?

Has anyone else's local council shared worries like this?

Yes. This is mine, it's closing next week, with no date set for re-opening.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63257207

Currently only the pool is closing but I doubt the rest of it will stay open much longer.

Our local council is closing lots of libraries and leisure centres. They seem to specialise in this in the most deprived areas, which seems to be kicking people when they're already down. Once upon a time they used to offer free swimming sessions for kids in the school holidays. Knocked that on the head years ago too.

The one pool that had fun things like a wave machine, bubble beds and two flume rides has now been turned into a gym. There's already a gym in the building, so it's not like the area needed another gym instead of a fun pool. As you say these things cost lots of money to run; the fun pool needed a big upgrade as no maintenance had been done on it since it was built 30 years ago, so it would have needed a huge amount invested on it. Fortunately there's still the 25m competition pool, but for how much longer? Obviously escalating heating bills will also have a massive impact, seems inevitable there will be lots of closures as a result.

Not closing down yet, but it regularly has to close due to issues with pumps or staffing issues and operates limited hours. It was bad before COVID and worsened since. It’s in a terrible state, old dilapidated and not fit for the area it serves in facilities, quality or size. I expect in the New Year it will close again for another mechanical issue and never reopen. The council do little but tender it out to another leisure management company who do little, moan about no one using it but refuse to acknowledge that closing it regularly doesn’t help user numbers. They try and repair it but it’s so dilapidated it costs more to keep repairing than a new facility.

Yes ours too.

I think one has been saved but 2 more closing & all this before the current round of spending cuts.

Ours is already shut and the only public swimming pool in town

How devastating for you and the community. Ours shut 9 years ago due to finances. It had a huge knock on effect in the community-from local groups closing, schools having to find extra money to transport dc to swimming lessons, loss of sports activities for dc, loss of community. The leisure centre was also used for birthday parties, Christmas fairs, community meetings, elderly luncheon club, charities etc.

No, our leisure centre is revamping their 1960s lido, in addition to running the standard indoor pools.

That's awful. If it's busy, your council need to put their prices up, to cover rising costs and see what happens. Just closing without trying to increase revenues is daft.

Quite.

I can't imagine anyone complaining at a small increase across all services as we all know the cost of delivering them is going up.

Similarly, I'd suggest they rent out their catering spaces to a separate company who can pay a small rent to the council, to trade in these busy spaces.

That's dreadful. Ours received money from the council to help them stay open.

Ours is owned and managed by the council.

Ours was reported in June as getting a £13.8M refurb starting April 2023.

The refurb was approved in 2019 so a bit later starting due to covid etc, but they have stated there will be review of sporting and leisure needs post pandemic, so guess there is still time for it all to be cancelled!