Updated Southampton City Council’s cabinet has approved a recommendation to “cease leisure services” at St Mary’s Leisure Centre.
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Cabinet, which comprises Conservative councillors, met on Monday evening to consider closure recommendations.
As reported, the recommendation was “to permanently cease leisure services at SMLC and approve in principle the disposal of the site” on the open market.
The decision followed a high profile campaign to keep the Grade II listed centre open, and a council consultation exercise that saw 1,758 responses, with 86% reporting a negative impact of a “discontinuation of services”.
It also saw a war of words between political parties, with the ruling Conservative group reportedly blaming Labour for the running of the centre, and Labour hitting back saying they did invest in St Mary’s and keep it open while they were in power.
Following the decision, leader of the Labour opposition group Cllr Satvir Kaur said that it was a "political choice" not to invest in keeping it open.
“If the Conservative Council wanted to save St Mary’s Leisure Centre, they could," she said.
She added: “87% of respondents from the council’s own consultation said other facilities were either unsuitable, unaffordable or inaccessible. We believe the thousands that are objecting to this closure should be listened to. Investment should be made. It’s not too late, a petition signed by over 2,000 is coming to Full Council tomorrow which we hope the Tories will listen to.”
And Nick Chaffey, who has campaigned to keep the leisure centre open, called the decision “a disgraceful act of vandalism, leaving hundreds of users, especially young people with nowhere to go.”
He claimed the council’s case is “full of holes”, in that attendance at the centre has been rising, it is a "safe building", and that closing it “discriminates against low income families who cannot afford expensive membership sports clubs according to the councils own documents”.
Chaffey said there would be a protest outside the Civic Centre before the full council meeting at the Guildhall tomorrow at 2pm, where a petition will be presented.
Cllr Hannides, cabinet member for finance, told the BBC that consultation comments had been taken onboard, and the council planned to use money from the building sale to support existing groups and facilities.
Reported the BBC:
"[Cllr Hannides] said repair works would cost £1.5m in addition to the £148,000 needed to operate the centre each year.
“He also blamed the closure to years of "neglect" as he said no investment had been made to improve the centre over the past 10 years, when Labour was in control of the authority."
Following the decision Bitterne Park ward councillor Ivan White (Con), who’s also a cabinet member, said: “It’s easy to say we shouldn’t close it but the building has … suffered for a lack of investment over many years. It’s just become impossible to sort of recover the situation.”
White added that he thought a high percentage of clubs in particular have moved into nearby university sports facilities, although there had been some impact on ‘casual’ users.
Article was updated with various comments later in the day.