Express & Star

Campaign to save trio of Dudley leisure centres

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A campaign has been launched by a former councillor to try to save three leisure centres from closing.

A threat hangs over Dudley Leisure Centre, on Wellington Road, Halesowen Leisure Centre, on Great Cornbow Road, and The Crystal Leisure Centre, on Bell Street, Stourbridge.

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council would demolish all three centres due to the cost of repairing them.

The centres will close and two newly-built facilities will replace them in a bid to save the council £1.7m.

The new state-of-the-art centres would have swimming pools, sports courts and a gym.

Former councillor and cabinet member for environment and leisure, Tracy Wood, set up the The Save Our Leisure Centres campaign.

So far 1,400 people have backed it.

Tracy said: "I have been going to the Crystal for 15 years.

"I decided to start a campaign group to try to keep the centres open.

"I'm going to continue putting pressure on the council to prevent the closures.

"The centres are good for the local economy and not everyone has a car to travel to leisure centres that are further away.

"There are good transport links to the locations where the leisure centres currently are."

The three centres would not close until the two new centres have been built. One town will no longer have a centre.

The proposals form part of the council's aim to save £25m over the next three years due to cuts.

Dudley councillor Khurshid Ahmed said: "Our current centres are not fit for purpose.

"Repairing them is not a sensible or long-term strategy.

The recommended option was to build two centres with the old ones being decommissioned."

The council will get a report on the plans on December 14. A meeting on the plans is at the Duke William, in Stourbridge, at 7.30pm tonight.

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