Residents in Calverton are fighting to protect a “lifeline” leisure centre over closure fears as a council reviews all of its sites due to financial concerns.
Gedling Borough Council is currently looking to replace the ageing Richard Herrod Centre and Carlton Forum Leisure Centre with a new purpose-built facility.
Called Carlton Active, the new leisure centre would be built where the Richard Herrod Centre sits, and it could feature an eight-lane swimming and teaching pool, a 100-station gym, community rooms, and a café.
The Labour-led authority says Carlton Forum and the Richard Herrod Centre currently face a backlog in repair works totalling more than £2 million, and the two centres alone require a yearly subsidy of around £545,000, making them “unsustainable in their current form”, according to council papers.
As part of the wider leisure strategy, the council is also reviewing how it manages joint-use sites, including Calverton Leisure Centre, because the portfolio is “not sustainable in its current form”.
Those who use the facility, and local ward councillor Andy Meads (Ind), submitted a petition to the council at a meeting on Wednesday (January 21), requesting that Calverton Leisure Centre be removed from the strategy and that the authority does not pull out of the joint arrangement.
They fear the site could close if the council ends its agreement, but the authority says no decisions have yet been made.
Claire Walker uses the centre for a swim and the gym regularly during the week before work.
Speaking at the meeting she called it a “lifeline” and said: “I’m one of many that will be losing out. I’m fortunate that I can drive and have access to a vehicle, many of the other users either walk or cycle to the leisure centre for added exercise and fresh air, or because they cannot drive.
“They cannot be expected to catch several buses to get to Carlton. Even going to Arnold on one bus will turn into a one-hour session into a two-hour excursion.
“How are kids supposed to learn to swim with no facilities? The village infant and primary schools will not simply be able to walk them in like they have been. They will have to pay to bus them in.
“I’m really struggling to comprehend, when Calverton is having more and more houses built and thrust upon us, why we are reducing the level of services.
“Arnold and Carlton are built up, there is very little space in those areas to build massive new housing estates like what is happening in Calverton. Yet the hopes are to give them an increased provision while decreasing what we have in a village that is getting bigger by the day.”
Council documents highlight a condition survey from 2017 that claims £44,000 in repairs are needed at the facility.
The centre has before faced closure on similar grounds.
However Cllr Meads told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that since the last time they tried to shut it things have changed – including the swimming pool reopening in 2020 after a £50,000 refurbishment.
“They have got all new lighting, new flooring, the plant for the pool is in tip-top condition,” he said.
“They have got no expectation of any costs coming up. [They say] demand for classes and sessions are in decline, that was another old one and is not true at all. There are waiting lists. If Calverton shut, these people couldn’t be accommodated at the other leisure centres.”
Calverton Leisure Centre is currently operated and managed by the council, but there are two joint-use agreements in place with Redhill Academy Trust, which runs the school site, and Nottinghamshire County Council, which owns the site.
The strategy recommends the centre is retained for community use “in the short term, but with the opportunity to transfer management back to the school and Nottinghamshire County Council, or work with another provider to manage to reduce the council’s liability.”
Cllr Henry Wheeler, portfolio holder for lifestyles, health and wellbeing, said all of its centres require an annual £1.3 million subsidy to run.
“The strength of feeling around Calverton leisure centre is clear and that concern is both understood and respected,” he said.
“I want to make it absolutely clear at the outset no decision has been made about withdrawing the joint-use agreement at Calverton, Redhill or Carlton Forum.
“What cabinet did on September 25 was approve a lawful and necessary public consultation on the future of all joint-use sites to ensure any decision is informed by evidence, community feedback, and quality considerations.
“The council’s leisure portfolio is not financially sustainable in its current form.
“Joint-use sites are also allocated on school sites not owned by the borough council, which significantly limits our ability invest, to modernise or plan for the long term.
“In September cabinet agreed in light of these pressures consultation should be undertaken on whether the council should continue to directly operate leisure services from joint use sites, and if not what alternative models could reduce financial risk.”
The strategy is expected to be considered again in March.
