Views sought on future of leisure services in county
ASURVEY on the future of leisure services in Cornwall is offering people a chance to tell councillors why they should keep centres open runs until the end of this month.
Cornwall Council is currently carrying out public consultation on its leisure strategy which looks at how leisure services in Cornwall should be provided.
It comes after operator GLL indicated that it could no longer afford to operate five services – leisure centres in Falmouth, Launceston, Saltash and Wadebridge as well as a hydrotherapy pool in St Austell.
The council has said that it has no money to run leisure services and says that it is not a statutory service that the authority has to provide.
In its strategy, the council says that all people in Cornwall should be able to drive to a leisure centre with a pool within 30 minutes.
People in the towns affected have been campaigning to save their local facilities and have called on the council to not close them down. They have also urged people from all over Cornwall to take part in the consultation and warned that further services could be closed in future.
Last week, a protest was held at Truro’s County Hall, with people urging councillors to protect leisure centres and pools.
The event was held ahead of a meeting of the council’s customer and support services overview and scrutiny committee which had been due to listen to 17 questions from members of the public about the possible closure of leisure centres.
However, a technical hitch meant that the meeting had to be postponed. It was set to take place today.
Cornwall Council has said that no final decision has yet been made on the future of the threatened
services and says that it will consider the results of the consultation before making any decision.
The council’s Cabinet is due to meet in December, when a report on the issue is expected to be presented with recommendations about the way forward.
If the centres do close, they could start to shut their doors from March, 2022.
The consultation will close on October 31.
To take part in the consultation go to https://letstalk.cornwall.gov. uk/leisure
A survey has also been set up for young people to respond to the consultation at https://letstalk. cornwall.gov.uk/ youngpeopleleisure