Gateshead leisure centres: Schools fear hefty travel bills

Gateshead Leisure Centre closed in July, along with Birtley Swimming Centre, due to council cuts

Schools have warned they could face huge travel bills for taking pupils to swimming classes after two leisure centres closed due to budget cuts.

Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swimming Centre shut in July.

Governors said children who once walked to their local pools would have to travel elsewhere by bus, which could cost tens of thousands of pounds.

Gateshead Council said its leisure services were £2.3m over budget and it had worked with the schools affected.

It comes as the TV historian David Olusoga, who grew up in the town, condemned what he called the "deep political failure" that led to the closure of Gateshead Leisure Centre.

Historian David Olusoga with members of the Save Leisure Gateshead campaign on Monday

The A House Through Time presenter has thrown his support behind the local efforts to get it reopened.

"This is a place that transformed my life when I was growing up, it is somewhere that is enormously valuable to the people of this town and I cannot believe that we are in a position where this beautiful building is in the state that it is today," he said

While there are hopes the centres will reopen under new community management, school bosses said they faced having to make "trade-offs" to cover the cost of hiring transport.

The Gateshead Active group, which is trying to complete a community asset transfer for Gateshead Leisure Centre, aims to have it reopened by the end of 2023.

Susan Coles, chair of governors at Brighton Grove Primary School, Bensham, said her school would have to pay £11,000 per year to send its pupils to Dunston Pool for swimming lessons.

'Curriculum time lost'

"It is a huge loss to the community and to families, as well as to schools," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

One head teacher said that money spent on travel bills could quickly run into tens of thousands of pounds for each school within a few years, if the centres cannot be saved.

"It might be that some after-school clubs don't happen or specialist coaches cannot come in [in order to reduce costs]," added the head, who asked not to be named.

"We will now lose curriculum time and that is more valuable than the money sometimes. Children will be sat on a coach and it will probably be 30 minutes each way, so that is just as big a challenge for us."

Protests and closures saw Labour lose two council seats to the Liberal Democrats in May's local elections

Labour's Angela Douglas, cabinet member responsible for leisure centres, said the authority was "supporting the community asset transfers".

"Schools across the borough are required to provide transport to pools for lessons, during the review it was identified a small number of schools that were in walking distance to a Gateshead Council pool would have to seek alternative mode of transport once the leisure centres closed," she added.

The government said it recognised "the current challenges" and on top of billions of pounds earmarked for councils, £60m was available to support operating costs of leisure centres and swimming pools.