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Protest staged at South Leeds Sports Centre:
A protest was staged outside South Leeds Sports Centre which is again threatened with closure – three years after it was saved by a community campaign.
South Leeds Sports Centre is among several in the city which could be closed as part of a shake-up of leisure facilities being proposed by Leeds City Council.
The council wants to transfer the Beeston facility to a community organisation but if that fails, the centre will close when a new sports
centre being built at Morley opens.
Campaigners from the renewed SPLASH (Save Our Pools and Sports Hall) group gathered on Friday evening to make their views clear.
They are hoping to repeat the success of campaigners in Middleton who
last month won a reprieve for their local facility.
Sally Cieslik a local parent and regular user of the Beeston centre, said: "With the Olympics looming and the Government keen that everyone gets involved in sport and keeps fit – how can it be possible for Leeds City Council to try to close our centre down a second time?
"We want to send a message to the council that we are not willing to accept them taking away our community sports facility."
In 2005, when the council shut down South Leeds Sports Centre, the SPLASH group organised a series of demonstrations, lobbied councillors, and collected 3,000 signatures on a petition.
The centre was eventually re-opened.
But it now faces a further threat of closure under the
council's "Vision for Leisure Centres in Leeds" which was announced last year.
As part of that vision, Garforth and Kippax leisure centres will be rebuilt on their existing sites but not until 2017.
Two other centres, Fearnville and East Leeds, will be replaced with a single 'well-being centre', possibly by 2013.
A raft of improvements are also planned at Kirkstall, Rothwell, Aireborough, Otley Chippendale Pool, Bramley, Pudsey, Scott Hall and Wetherby leisure centres.
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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