Camelford Leisure Centre gets £50k lifeline

Very good news for the team trying to save Camelford Leisure Centre - they have been awarded a £50,000 grant from Sport England.

The centre is being dumped by Cornwall Council against the wishes of local residents and the protests of the Liberal Democrats. Despite all the waste, the Conservatives refused to try to find the £62,500 per year it would take to keep the leisure centre operating normally.

Faced with the alternative of losing the leisure centre altogether, local people have put together a business plan and sought out various funding streams. The Sport England grant, which will pay for a biomass boiler and solar panels, is the largest, but there have been a series of others. Huge congratulations to Camelford Mayo Rob Rotchell, centre manager Richard Burke and the countless others who have contributed to this success.

Despite this success, the centre has had to cut services with operating hours cut and staff numbers dropping from 8 to 6. That is why the community management option is still seen as being the second best route to save the centre and why I have pledged to put forward an amendment to the budget in February to keep it as a full time part of the leisure trust rather than casting it adrift.

Tweet