Third bid to axe leisure centre backed

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

Senior councillors have voted once again to axe a leisure centre, in what is the third attempt to close the facility.

Legal challenges sank Caerphilly County Borough Council’s two previous bids to shut down Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre, which campaigners say was well used and is valued by the local community.

But council decision-makers claim they can provide better facilities elsewhere, and argue the site is suffering from a costly maintenance backlog.

Vaccination centre

The leisure centre closed down at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and has not reopened, but did serve temporarily as a vaccination centre.

Cabinet members agreed, at a meeting on Wednesday March 12, that the indoor facilities at Pontllanfraith will remain shut, and the centre’s outdoor 3G pitch will also be permanently closed once a new multi-use games area (MUGA) is completed nearby.

Cllr Chris Morgan, the cabinet member for leisure, said the centre’s closure was in line with the council’s ten-year sport and active recreation strategy, which aims to provide better-quality leisure services at fewer facilities.

Jeff Reynolds, the local authority’s sport and leisure facilities manager, said Caerphilly Council “ranks as number one” in Wales, in terms of the size of its leisure centre estate.

Maintenance backlog

Rob Hartshorn, the head of leisure services, added the maintenance backlog at Pontllanfraith was now calculated to be more than £700,000, in light of inflation changes since the previous estimate.

He argued that even if the council spent that money, the centre “is still a 50-year-old building” that wouldn’t meet modern accessibility and energy-efficiency standards.

Cllr Morgan said it was “appropriate” to close the centre “given the condition of the existing facilities when there are new, alternate, and modern facilities available on the adjacent site and nearby”.

He said the new Centre for Vulnerable Learners (CVL), under development next door, will include a sports hall and MUGA for community use outside of school hours.

Following the cabinet meeting, Cllr Shane Williams, who has long opposed moves to shut the leisure centre, said the latest decision is “frustrating” and reiterated his belief the council will “stop at nothing”.

“They will not recognise or understand the impact this will have on so many people trying to access sports and leisure in this part of the borough”, said Cllr Williams, adding he believed casual users would struggle to travel to alternative sites elsewhere in Caerphilly, or further afield.

He challenged the “ludicrous” costs proposed for maintenance at Pontllanfraith, and said any replacement facilities at the CVL would be inferior to those at the leisure centre, where a bigger 3G pitch is “in so much demand” and has match bookings for April.

Slashed

Cllr Williams also questioned why leisure provision was being slashed in that part of the county borough – Cefn Fforest is one of three other centres currently at risk of closure in separate council proposals – while the local authority is contributing millions of pounds towards a new centre for Caerphilly town.

“Blackwood is a principal town served very closely by Pontllanfraith and Cefn Fforest,” he said. “These two vital facilities are being torn down – it doesn’t make sense.”

At the cabinet meeting, Cllr Jamie Pritchard, the council’s deputy leader, accepted Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre was “well liked in the past and, for a number in the community, it is now”.

But he said the council had invested heavily in sport and leisure services since the centre shut its doors during the pandemic.

He noted officers’ advice that “an investment in a smaller number of better leisure centres is more sustainable than maintaining 50-year-old buildings”, and said he believed Caerphilly’s leisure service “would be the envy of many of our nearby authorities”.