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Top e-government news, updated daily, and regular features from the top people in the public sector.
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| Sports centres 'facing the axe' |
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Three inner-city sports centres are at risk of closure under Leeds City Council plans for health and leisure provision.
The ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat-Green coalition is preparing a plan to build new leisure centres with £30m from the Government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
But senior sources close to the council have told the Yorkshire Evening Post that leading councillors and officers are debating closing two east Leeds leisure centres if the PFI money is secured.
Those facilities, East Leeds leisure centre, in Neville Road, Halton Moor, and Fearnville leisure centre, in Oakwood Lane, Gipton, would then be replaced by a PFI-funded building on Killingbeck Fields, at the junction of Wykebeck Valley Road and York Road.
Councillor John Procter, executive member for leisure, said no decision had been taken on the site of any new centres. He has previously conceded that if the PFI plan goes ahead, East Leeds leisure centre would be unlikely to continue operating in its current form.
He told the YEP: "I would not say it (Killingbeck Fields] was a proposed site, there is a whole range of sites across the city."
The future looks even less certain for South Leeds Sports Centre, in Beeston Road, which was closed for refurbishment in mid-December.
Nearly five months later it remains shut and no work has started yet.
A notice on the building, headed 'closure update,' said the start date for the works had been delayed.
"The centre will remain closed to the public during this time. Other essential work and maintenance will be taking place in the meantime," it read.
Councillor David Congreve, (Lab, Beeston & Holbeck) said he believes that centre has already closed for good.
He said: "I don't think they will ever re-open it. If that was the case it would hit local people hard. A lot of people living in that area use the centre and rely on it, it is a valuable local facility."
Councillor Congreve said he believed the council hoped to save money by shutting the centre and encouraging people to use new facilities at South Leeds Stadium.
Describing the situation at the south Leeds centre as "complicated" Coun Procter said Coun Congreve had been fully briefed about the situation.
"There was a significant element of Government Sure Start funding that would enable south Leeds to continue in business," Councillor Procter said. "There is a question mark over that money. That is one of the reasons south Leeds is not currently open. It is not in an ideal place and there are all kinds of problems with that centre."
Councillor Procter then said that decisions about south Leeds would not be made by him, but by council officers.
Operational matters are delegated to officers while elected members "set a steer," he said.
He said that when the new council was elected in 2004 it inherited a leisure centre repair bill of £60m.
"This was not for cosmetic work, it was for really big health and safety issues. We can do as the previous administration did, and ignore it, or plan for the future," he added.
Gipton residents' leader Martin Bowers said: "It would be disaster if Fearnville shut." |
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