Leisure centre users ‘distraught and confused’ ahead of opening hours cuts

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

Opening hours at a leisure centre that faced potential closure will be reduced from September, in a move critics say will make it more difficult for people to access its swimming pools.

Caerphilly County Borough Council rowed back on initial proposals to close Cefn Fforest Leisure Centre after campaigners said the plans were “detrimental” and left them “in the lurch”.

The cabinet decision to instead pursue a reduction in opening hours was not part of the original proposals, and was described as a “Pyrrhic victory” for campaigners by one backbench councillor.

From September 1, the new opening hours for the centre’s swimming pools and health suite will be from 4pm to 8pm on weekdays, and from 9am to 1pm on weekends.

The leisure centre’s fitness suite will also close.

Savings

Ahead of the hours reduction, the council said the new timetable is “shaped around the leisure centre’s busiest periods, ensuring the most popular times remain available for the community, while helping the council to deliver savings”.

Cllr Chris Morgan, the cabinet member for leisure services, added the council was “pleased Cefn Fforest Leisure Centre will remain open for the community, and this clearly demonstrates that we are prepared to respond positively to feedback from residents in our decision-making”.

He said the new opening hours “will ensure residents continue to have access to valued leisure facilities while supporting the long-term strategy for sport and active recreation”.

But this view has been challenged by Cllr Shane Williams, a Labour representative of the Cefn Fforest and Pengam ward, who has long questioned leisure service changes around that part of the borough.

Cllr Williams, who previously made the “Pyrrhic victory” remarks, said there was “no justification” for new opening times which, he claimed, would “deny hundreds of schoolchildren, hundreds of pensioners and everyone else”.

Closing the pool to the public until 4pm on weekdays will mean “the vast majority of people who until now use that pool will not be able to use it”, said Cllr Williams.

“More active, more often”

The council stance on wider plans to “rationalise” its leisure centre estate is that it can save money and provide a better service at fewer, modern sites – as agreed by councillors who approved a ten-year sports and active recreation strategy in 2019.

Cllr Williams, however, believes shutting sites down and expecting people to travel further for leisure services goes against the strategy’s mantra of making the borough’s residents “more active, more often”.

“It doesn’t make any sense”, he said, adding the decision had left people feeling “confused and distraught”, with “no idea where to go”.

“It’s not practical to say to pensioners that if they want to go for their morning swim, they have to go to Heolddu or somewhere else,” he added.

Separately, Cllr Kevin Etheridge, an independent from nearby Blackwood, questioned why the council had proceeded with reducing the hours without giving people a chance to have their say.

An hours reduction did not form part of the council’s formal consultation on the leisure centre’s future, which focused on the original proposals to close the site.

Cllr Etheridge called the proposals “death by a thousand cuts”, adding: “Was the health and wellbeing of our children considered in regards to learning to swim? I think not.”