Optional relaxation funding hit hard

The headline closures have mainly come in Leeds, where the council is shutting one leisure centre entirely and closing the swimming pool at another.

Bradford Council is also closing one pool at Manningham.

But the most obvious impact for the majority of Yorkshire residents will be a general reduction in service. At swimming pools and museums from Skipton to Sheffield, opening hours will be reduced, staffing levels cut, activities scaled back and charges raised.

Yesterday schoolchildren were protesting outside Bramley Baths in Leeds, where reduced opening hours mean their swimming sessions have had to be cancelled.

In Harrogate, the district council has said it will no longer provide activities at the local leisure centre. Opening hours will be cut too at Hull Arena and the city’s Costello Stadium.

Museums and art galleries will also see their funding cut, though no outright closures have yet been announced.

Richmondshire Council is cutting its leisure funding significantly, as is Sheffield City Council, bringing suggestions – denied by the authority – that the Graves Art Gallery is now under threat.

Sheffield is also axing one third of its park rangers, while in Scarborough both park rangers will be lost and the service replaced with volunteers.

In York, the city council is effectively to withdraw support from the park on Hull Road and will allow it to become a “public open space” – removing gates, flower beds and all supervision.

New park rangers recruited in Harrogate will be seasonal workers only, meaning far less winter park maintenance will take place and that they will be far less skilled and experienced when the summer months do come round.

And across the region many annual “in bloom” competitions will lose their funding.

In one scrap of positive news amid a sea of cuts, Scarborough Council has announced it will spend £30,000 on new equipment for Whitby Leisure Centre.