David Olusoga joins calls to reopen Gateshead leisure centre

Prof Olusoga fears local youngsters will be deprived of opportunities

A TV historian has been left "absolutely heartbroken" by the closure of a North East leisure centre he used as a child.

David Olusoga has added his voice to the campaign to save Gateshead Leisure Centre.

The host of BBC Two's A House Through Time described it as an act of "cultural and civic vandalism" and said he was "absolutely heartbroken".

Gateshead Council said the facility was "no longer affordable".

The Geordie-Nigerian broadcaster grew up on Gateshead's St Cuthbert's Village estate and credits the leisure centre with changing his life, but now fears that local youngsters will be deprived of the opportunities it gave him.

It's one of two venues closed by the council due to costs.

After his mum sent him a photo of the leisure centre in its boarded-up state earlier this week, David told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he was "heartbroken".

Community backers hope the leisure centre could reopen in November.

Gateshead council closed the centre on 21 July due to costs

The 53-year-old said: "I have so many memories of the leisure centre opening [following its 1970s rebuild] and it being something that transformed my life. I was not very good at sport up until then, but I did karate and judo at the leisure centre."

Having been contacted by the Save Leisure Gateshead group, which has been fighting to keep the centre open, the historian has now joined the calls to protect the centre for future generations.

Prof Olusoga said: "I would love to see the leisure centre reopen. It speaks to the resilience of the people of Gateshead that the campaign group has been created, but this should never have happened.

"I would not point fingers at local councils who are being asked to do what is literally impossible. This is what austerity is - it is not just a headline, it is the stripping away of money that actually makes our societies work."

The authority says it has lost £179m from its annual spending power since 2010 and can no longer afford to run leisure services that are overspending their budgets.