At-risk Gateshead leisure centres may be owned by communities

Gateshead Leisure Centre, in Saltwell, is among the facilities due to close

Talks are taking place to transfer the ownership of two threatened leisure centres to their local communities.

Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swimming Centre will close on 21 July if plans are signed off by local authority leaders next week.

Gateshead Council bosses say they cannot afford to keep running the centres due to budget cuts.

However, community efforts to save both sites could allow them to reopen again in a matter of months.

The plans to close the services, which have been ongoing since last year, have been met with backlash in the community.

Council leaders said the closures would be "devastating" but keeping them open would exceed its annual budget by about £2m.

Both the swimming pool and the leisure complex were earmarked to close in January, but Gateshead Council delayed the decision to allow further public consultation.

Talks are ongoing over transferring the two sites into new ownership.

The council's cabinet is due to deliver a final verdict on Tuesday that would see the centres close on Friday, 21 July.

No jobs will be lost from the centres' closures, with all staff being transferred to work at the council's other leisure sites - at Heworth, Blaydon, Dunston, Birtley Sports Hall, and Gateshead International Stadium, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Campaigners gathered outside Gateshead Civic Centre in January

There are plans to complete community asset transfers that would take control of both facilities from the council.

A Gateshead Active group set up to save the Gateshead Leisure Centre is hopeful of completing a deal to reopen it in the autumn.

Meanwhile, Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club and the Birtley Swimming Club are proposing to take over the Birtley pool - though that process is at an earlier stage and may see it reopen in April 2024.

The council said it was not financially viable to keep the centres open until the asset transfers were complete, having already committed £900,000 of reserves to keep them running three months longer than had been planned.

The council leisure centres that do remain open are expected to be outsourced to a private operator.