Council to consider closing Catmose Sports Centre

Rutland County Council said it had spent £800,000 on subsidising the centre

Councillors are to vote on whether to close a Rutland leisure centre or appoint new operators to keep it open.

Rutland County Council said the cost of running Catmose Leisure Centre, in Oakham, had risen sharply while the number of people using it had declined.

It warned it might need to make savings elsewhere if the centre remained open.

The authority announced the gym would shut last year but then reversed its decision after a public campaign to save it.

More than 3,000 people signed a petition against the previous planned closure.

The council is coming to the end of a year-long process to find a private company to run the centre in the future.

It said councillors would decide on Monday whether to choose a new operator or surrender the lease on the site, at Catmose College, which runs until 2051.

A debate on the issue is likely to be held in private to protect commercially-confidential information, the council said.

'Terrible loss'

Danny Byrne, who runs kickboxing classes at the centre, said: "I understand the council's position because they are footing the bill for a private company to run it.

"If the council won't continue to fund it, the answer might be the community stepping in and running it for the public as a collective.

"But if it did close it would be a terrible loss to the community."

Christine Wise, the council's cabinet member for communities, said the original 10-year contract, signed when the sports centre opened to the public in 2011, was intended to ensure it was run at no cost to the taxpayer.

She said, however, the council had been required to subsidise the costs.

"We have actively sought and considered bids that would incur additional costs to the council so there is a lot for councillors to consider," she said.

"Catmose Sports Centre was only ever intended to run at net-nil cost, with the operator banking any profits they make.

"User numbers have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, while running costs have risen sharply, requiring us to inject more than £800,000 into the centre to keep the doors open."