Community group allowed six months to bid for leisure centre

Earlier this year, Barnsley Council announced that it planned to close three “outdated” leisure centres including Penistone Leisure Centre, Athersley Leisure Centre and Wombwell Swimming Baths.

High-profile campaigns were launched to save both Wombwell Baths and the Penistone centre, and yesterday senior councillors signalled that Wombwell was set for demolition while Penistone may survive.

When details first emerged of the council’s cost-cutting plan, the Penistone Community Group was mobilised to try and persuade the authority to reverse its decision, but the council stood firm.

Since then the group has been working with officers from Barnsley Premier Leisure, which ran the facility under contract to the local authority, to “work up” proposals for its future.

Until yesterday, details of what would happen with the three sites had been discussed behind closed doors, because of concerns over the commercial sensitivity of figures relating to their sale.

Details of the proposals for each centre have now been released in a report, but the papers have been censored by the council in order to hide what it expects to achieve if each site is bought privately.

All three centres closed at the end of May, and Athersley Leisure Centre was recently demolished after severe vandalism and health and safety concerns forced council officers to take action.

The other two sites have been secured, but it was estimated that each site required a substantial sum of money to bring it up to modern standards, money not available because of local authority cuts.

According to surveys, Wombwell Baths require £723,000 over the next 10 years just to maintain the facilities in their current state of repair while Athersley would have needed £568,000.

The Penistone site, which was originally built as a drill hall, would need less at £272,000 – which is one of the reasons the group has been allowed to continue with its takeover work.

The report released yesterday said: “It is recommended that a six-month stewardship be granted to the existing Penistone Community Partnership.

“During this time the community group would have time to prepare a business plan and become properly constituted.

“At the end of the six-month period, the premises would either be transferred to the community group or disposed of.

“The community group have been advised that they should obtain their own survey of the premises and that the council will require sight of a sustainable business plan in respect of the premises and that they should instruct a solicitor to act on their behalf,” it added.

Barnsley Council’s ruling cabinet has ordered officers to prepare a further report to be presented to them early next year, so that members can decide whether to allow the group to continue or to go ahead with the sale of the site, which would be attractive to developers.

Officers said they has also worked with members of the group which had called for Wombwell Baths to be saved, but said the degree of work required had meant that the future of the building was unsustainable.

The report said: “The first option was to consider whether there were any community groups interested in reopening the baths and operating them as a community pool and leisure facility.

“The option has been explored, but the facility needs £725,000 worth of planned maintenance carried out over the next 10 years and this makes re-opening the facility not financially viable.

“In addition, the baths need rewiring immediately and the boiler system requires overhauling to bring it up to modern standards.

“The second option is that the building is offered for sale through local auction.

“The building could then be reused for a variety of uses subject to the necessary planning consents being gained.”

The council says that, although the Wombwell building had been secured, it was now becoming the target for anti-social behaviour and it had been entered into a property auction to take place next month.

The report added: “Given the size of the building and the ongoing problems of keeping it secure, it is recommended that if it fails to sell in September it is demolished and the site is then sold for redevelopment.”