Gateshead: Mark Foster backs campaign to save leisure centre

The former world champion joined calls for Gateshead Leisure Centre and Birtley Swimming Centre to be brought back into use, after a national report warned that more than 1,000 pools around the country have shut down since 2010 – with another 1,500 approaching the end of their shelf life.

Swim England this week pleaded with the Government to put major investment into the nation’s pools, saying that swimming has a social value of £2.4bn every year.

Read more: David Olusoga condemns Gateshead Leisure Centre closure

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Friday, Mr Foster said it was “frightening” that an increasing number of children are unable to swim 25m by the age of 11 as more and more pools come under threat.

The British Olympian said: “My father, at the age of 11, was thrown in a lake and nearly drowned, so he used to take us to the local pool and I learned that the water was a fun place to be and I had swimming lessons. Without those lessons, I and a load of other kids would not have learned how to swim and that is a life skill where you can save yourself and save somebody else.”

The 53-year-old added: “But when you get a bit older and reflect more and more, you realise the other impact it has on people – not just their physical health but their mental health… it is not just learning to swim, it has so many other benefits that go with it.”

The Gateshead and Birtley centres closed at the end of July under controversial council budget cuts, with local authority bosses saying they could no longer afford to subsidise the facilities after losing £179m from their annual spending power over the last 13 years.

There are hopes that both can reopen under community management – with the Gateshead Active group hoping to reopen the larger centre on Prince Consort Road by the end of this year.

The Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club and Birtley Amateur Swimming Club have also teamed up to work on a similar community asset transfer plan, which could see the Birtley baths could be back in use next spring.

Read more: Gateshead and Birtley leisure centres closed under council cuts

Praising campaigners who have fought since last year to save their beloved leisure centre, Mr Foster said: “Unless someone does something, nothing happens. It is always strength in numbers. The more people that speak up, the more chance that something will happen and things will change. We do these things for ourselves, but also for future generations.

“Everyone learns to swim, hopefully everyone gets the opportunity to learn. This [the campaigns to save the pools] impacts everybody so more and more people should get behind it.”

Swim England launched its ‘Don’t Put a Cap on Swimming’ campaign this week, coinciding with the release of a report highlighting the huge value of swimming in society – including 78,500 cases of ill health being prevented in 2022 and huge financial savings to the NHS and social care system.

The organisation’s chief executive, Jane Nickerson MBE, warned that ministers must be willing to commit serious funding to ensure more pools are not lost, especially in more deprived areas like Gateshead, as local councils come under severe financial pressure.

She said: “Community groups looking to run the pools is really good and if it is a viable option then we will always help with that, with technical guidance and expertise… But the long run is making sure that the Government’s national vision for facilities takes off and has a funding mechanism to keep these facilities open so that we have a network of sustainable pools.

“We know this leaves a deficit of water space in your area. There are three public facilities still open in the brough [Dunston, Blaydon, and Heworth] but the reality of the situation is that investment is needed to upgrade and replace those facilities.

“Since 2010 we have lost 169 pools in the most deprived parts of the country compared to 49 in the richest parts of the country.”

The Swim England report highlights the case of Steve Wright, from Gateshead, who has lost more than 40 pounds in weight since he started swimming in 2018 after suffering a stroke.

The two recent pool closures mean he now has to travel further to swim and the 66-year-old, who has type 2 diabetes, fears that some people will find it “impossible” to keep swimming.

He said: “It’s devastating because it’s a kind of exercise that suits me massively. I did not see myself jogging, walking and doing couch to 5km or anything like that.

“My weight loss has been fairly slow, but it’s a loss every time, every week it goes down and that’s because of swimming. It’d be easy for me to say, ‘I’ll just jump in the car and go further’ but I still work and that’s a lot of travelling just to get to the next pool.

“And can you imagine all of a sudden if I went the other way, my blood sugars will start to rise again and I’d start putting weight on. Thankfully, my mind is in a better place because of it and I’m not thinking negatively about it, but it might not be easy for some and for others it’s impossible to get to a pool.”

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Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon said his authority was left with “no choice” but to close the two leisure centres after years of austerity cuts, but that the asset transfer groups had the civic centre’s “full backing and support”.

He added: “I’m thrilled that Swim England have launched the campaign, we need as many people to get behind the campaign but the current government urgently need to realise the importance of the leisure centres to people’s physical and mental health. They are an intervention which would support our health services which are crumbling under the current pressures. I do hope the campaign succeeds and I call on government to start ring fence funding for leisure services.”

The Government said that learning to swim “ is a vital life skill and we recognise the role our public pools play”.

A spokesperson added: “Local authorities are responsible for swimming pools and leisure centres, but the Government recognises the current challenges they face. Councils in England will benefit from almost £60 billion to deliver frontline services with an average funding increase of 9.4 per cent over this financial year.

“To help keep leisure centres and swimming pools open and improve energy efficiency, the Government has also stepped in with a £60 million fund to support operating costs.”