Council survives latest questions over leisure centre closure plan

Backbench councillors in Caerphilly have voted against challenging a plan to shut down Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre.

The vote means cabinet members will not be asked to reconsider their recent decision to keep the site closed.

Campaigners have spent years fighting various attempts to shut the centre – and two previous cabinet decisions were quashed by the courts.

Caerphilly County Borough Council officers say the site, which hasn’t been fully operational since 2020, is 50-years-old and faces a maintenance backlog of more than £700,000.

They say the closure fits their plans for a smaller and more modern leisure estate, and the community will be able to use new facilities at the Centre for Vulnerable Learners (CVL) next door, when it opens later this year.

But critics argue the centre was well-used and served the community well, and should be saved.

They have challenged the council’s claims about the condition of the site, and have criticised the millions of pounds spent on a new facility in Caerphilly, which already has a leisure centre.

At a meeting of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s environment committee, on Tuesday March 25, three members called in the cabinet’s most recent closure decision on several grounds, including a lack of financial information.

Cllr Judith Pritchard said feedback from a public consultation had been “very much in favour” of keeping the site, and claimed closing it would be “very unsatisfactory for families in need… and disabled users”.

Cllr Bob Owen said the council had “not listened to the public” when cabinet members agreed the closure.

He said the CVL’s new all-weather games area, which will be smaller than the 3G pitch at the leisure centre, would be “no good for sports”.

Cllr Haydn Pritchard also supported the call-in to the committee.

The committee’s deputy chairman, Cllr Shane Williams, also queried the leisure centre’s maintenance backlog.

Cllr Williams, who has long campaigned to save the leisure centre, said previous claims about the sports hall needing a new floor had been removed from reports after he challenged them.

Councillors should be given a more detailed breakdown of the proposed costs, he added.

But Cllr Chris Morgan, the cabinet member for leisure, said he and his colleagues had received “various reports… explaining the costs” before making the closure decision.

Head of leisure services Rob Hartshorn said the leisure centre, if it reopened, would be more expensive to run than the expected cost of running the CVL, even before considering “significant repair liabilities”.

Committee members voted 9-7 against sending the closure decision back to the cabinet for reconsideration. One member abstained.