Council could face another legal battle over leisure centre’s future

Nicholas Thomas – Local democracy reporter

A council could face another legal battle over a leisure centre’s future after councillors were asked for a third time to consider closing it.

Decision-makers at Caerphilly County Borough Council have had to go back to the drawing board after the High Court quashed the local authority’s previous attempt to shut Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre.

“Here we are again”, Cllr Shane Williams told colleagues, adding he believed “decision-makers will stop at nothing” in their efforts.

Pontllanfraith was initially earmarked for closure in 2018 as part of the council’s ten-year Sports and Active Recreation Strategy.

Proposals

The council believes it can run a better service from fewer sites, and is also currently consulting on proposals to shut down its leisure centres in Bedwas, Cefn Fforest and New Tredegar.

But the move to shut Pontllanfraith has been met with stiff resistance from the community and was twice thwarted in the courts – most recently in January when the council conceded on one of the six grounds brought against it in an application for judicial review.

The site’s indoor facilities have been shut since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the sports hall was used as a vaccination centre.

Cost

Critics have also questioned why the council is contributing £13 million towards a new leisure centre in Caerphilly when it says it can’t afford to keep other sites open.

Appearing before the council’s environment scrutiny committee, Cllr Chris Morgan, the cabinet member for leisure, said the Pontllanfraith facility is “almost 50 years old” and has a “significant maintenance backlog” – estimated at nearly £500,000.

The site’s all-weather 3G pitch is “at the end of its lifespan” but is proposed to remain open until a MUGA (multi-use games area) is completed at the nearby Centre for Vulnerable Learners.

That centre, currently under development, will contain “modern” leisure facilities that will be open to the community outside of school hours, added Cllr Morgan.

Ignoring

But Cllr Williams accused the council of “constantly ignoring” the views of the community, which argues the site is well used and says alternative leisure centres are too far away.

The new Centre for Vulnerable Learners will not have the same range of facilities and its MUGA will be smaller than the existing 3G pitch, campaigners say.

Pontllanfraith councillor Patricia Cook noted the new facility would “only be available after school hours”, and said the area would be “poorly served” if the council shut its leisure centres there and in Cefn Fforest.

Jeff Reynolds, the council’s sport and leisure facilities manager, said the opening of the new Centre for Vulnerable Learners would “build additional capacity” into local provision, because the leisure centre’s indoor activities had been closed for the past five years.

Committee member Adrian Hussey asked whether the council’s Sports and Active Recreation Strategy was achieving its aims – and said shutting a leisure centre “seems to go against that”.

Progress

Mr Reynolds said the council had made “quite significant progress” and invested in new 3G pitches, athletics, community centres and outdoor paths.

Head of leisure services Rob Hartshorn added the department has a £4 million net budget, and “given the financial challenges we are facing, we can’t keep spreading the resources as thinly as we do”.

Cllr Judith Pritchard asked whether the council could face yet another legal challenge to the proposed closure.

Head of legal services Robert Tranter confirmed it was possible, explaining “every decision we make is potentially open to judicial review”.

“It is a fact of life we have to deal with,” he added.