Council-run swimming pools in Blackburn could be saved from closure

Blackburn Centurions Swimming Club and Zoe Taylor Dance Academy have come forward with offers of help to operate Shadsworth Leisure Centre and Daisyfield Pool.

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Hundreds of people took part in a public consultation which was launched as part of a review into Blackburn with Darwen Council’s leisure and swimming pool provision.

The review is part of many taking place across all services following unprecedented government budget cuts.

It was announced in September that the centres could shut next year unless someone stepped forward to shoulder the £730,000-a-year cost of maintaining and running them.

Councillors are set to hear the findings and proposals which could see the continuation of many of the well-used services at both pools.

If agreed on Thursday, December 3, the council will start making arrangements to work in partnership with Blackburn Centurions Swimming Club and Zoe Taylor Dance Academy and investigate other opportunities for Daisyfield Pools to be operated by another organisation in the near future.

Reduced opening hours for both centres are proposed to help ensure the needed budget savings can be made.

Cllr Damian Talbot, executive member for leisure, culture and young people, said: “We promised to listen and involve people in any decisions about these popular facilities.

“That has happened, resulting in groups offering to work with us to keep both facilities open.”

The new operating details will be widely publicised following the decision, the council has said.

Any closure of Shadsworth’s leisure centre and its 25-metre pool will be highly controversial as Labour campaigned against plans to shut it, brought forward by the Tory-led coalition in charge of Blackburn with Darwen Council, in 2010.

After Labour took control of the town hall in September that year, they kept the centre open with reduced hours. A consultation was launched following the original announcement and finished at the end of October.