COUNCIL APPROVES SHUTTING DOWN GLENHOLME LEISURE CENTRE – MP DEFENDS DECISION
Durham County Council's cabinet committee has this morning Wednesday, July 13, voted to close Glenholme Leisure Centre in Crook The centre was one of six in the county facing closure as the council cuts £3.4m from its sports and leisure budget and now will close its doors on October 11 of this year.
Labour MP for Durham North West Pat Glass has defended the council and its decision but vowed to write to the council asking for those with medical complaints and community groups to be accomodated elsewhere.
The vote to shut Glenholme follows two unsuccessful bids to save the centre by community organisations and dismisses a 4,661-name petition raised in the town to save it. The decision has been met with sadness and questions over the council's motives and its figures.
Durham County Council has been consulting on the future of six leisure
centres, as part of its need to make £123.5m in savings over the next
four years, including £1m on indoor leisure.
The authority received 19 bids from 10 organisations to take over the threatened facilities but has since written to many of the groups, which failed to meet legal criteria.
John Winter Chair of Glenholme Community Leisure Ltd – one of the groups unsuccessful in bidding to run the centre said recently he was expecting the result. "I am absolutely gutted, he told The Mercury. "It will be a big loss for the town. We are going to have less now than we had in the 1950s. In fact we are going to have nothing at all."
Mr Winter also raised questions about the council's figures and motives in its decision to close the centre in a letter to the cabinet this week. A full copy of which is on the letters page of your Wear Valley Mercury out on Friday, July 15.
In the letter, Mr Winter asks:"In the documentation supplied to bidders there are figures included which border on 'creative accounting' - or making the figures suit the argument – for example:-
"Neighbourhood Services Support Costs – £49,053 – this figure is supposed to be a contribution towards the services supplied to the centre for human resources, legal and other administration services.
"Well excuse me but aren't these services at County Hall already being paid for by the taxpayers of the County? Why charge for a service already paid for? If the same sort of figure is charged to all remaining 13 County Council run leisure centres Durham County Council is 'clawing back' some £686,742 per annum.
"The same can be said for the £65,401 depreciation charge included in the income and expenditure account – this is an asset figure and should not be included in income \ expenditure.
"Durham County Council has placed a great emphasis on switching from indoor to outdoor leisure facilities but I would like to know where the following monies are being spent on Sports Development in the areas concerned? There is certainly no evidence in Wear Valley of £495,206 being spent."
Later Mr Winter reveals how he suspects the council had a separate agenda over the closure."Durham County Council could achieve the required reduction of £1.25m without having to resort to closing any community leisure facilities – if that is its wish," he said.
"However, I am a realist and will make a prediction – Crook town will not only lose Glenholme Leisure Centre it will lose its bowling green, outdoor mulit-use court, skate-board park and West Durham Youth will also lose The Boys Club – all located immediately next to Glenholme – and probably identified for development – nothing to do with costs and savings.
"These figures should be made known to the general public, after all, it is they who pay the Council Tax into County Durham coffers."
In last week's Mercury, the County Council strenuously denied that it had made any plans for the Glenholme site before voting on it to be closed. A spokesperson said: “When that decision has been made, and not before, the process of identifying site plans will be undertaken.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Dodds, the council’s Outdoor Facilities Manager, said Glenholme Bowls Club, like many groups, renewed its lease on an annual basis, with the process proceeding as normal this year.
A Durham County Council cabinet report published in March, states there is already a shortage of leisure provision in Bishop Auckland, the town closest for Crook residents to visit, and that it is planning a £15m development in Consett – 15 miles from Crook – but that plan is in its infancy.
However, MP for Durham North West, Pat Glass has defended the Labour-run County Council's decision to close Glenholme laying the blame on the coalition central government's emergency cost cutting measures after it seized power from Labour in last year's elections inheriting a huge national debt. The MP also vowed to write to the council to ask for those with medical complaints and community groups to be accomodated elsewhere, despite services elswhere running at capacity already.
"It is disappointing news to lose this important community leisure facility. The blame for the closure of Glenholme lies squarely with 10 Downing Street. Durham County Council is being forced by the Tory-led government in Whitehall to deliver £125m of spending cuts, about 30 per cent of the Council’s budget over four years.," the Labour MP said."I know that Durham County Council does not want to close our leisure centre but has no choice given the enormous funding reductions they are being forced to make, the MP who has an office in Conset and Crook added. “I will be writing to the council to ensure that those with medical conditions and schools and community groups who used the centre will be accommodated elsewhere. “