Popular Rutland leisure centre to close after council vote

A council has voted to close a leisure centre instead of using money allocated for flood management to keep it open.

Residents told members of Rutland County Council they should be "ashamed" after the decision on Thursday.

A special meeting of the authority voted against using money earmarked from the budget for flood defences to keep Catmose Leisure Centre in Oakham from closing.

The centre, in Rutland, has nearly 800 members.

When that proposal was lost, a second recommendation to not award a new contract to avoid any financial liability lying with the council was won - meaning the centre will have to close, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

As the meeting came to an end, several members shouted comments, including "you should be ashamed of yourselves", "how dare you treat 8,000 people like that?" and "you're an embarrassment to the county".

Council leader Gale Waller told the meeting: "What you have before you tonight is the result of cabinet's deliberations on these matters - with no additional funding available, the decision is how to re-allocate existing financial resources.

"Cabinet feels that transferring the climate and flood management funding to leisure to pay for a private contractor is the least worst option.

"In order to balance our books we have extremely challenging savings targets over the next four years, and committing funding to a 10-year contract with a private company for non-statutory provision, limits the flexibility we, and our successors will have to react should the council's savings targets not be met.

"This decision is not something we would choose to do, and therefore members will each be voting according to their consciences, and what they believe is in the best interests for the whole of Rutland."

The result was six votes for using the flood money, 16 votes against, and three abstentions.

In February, following unprecedented local flooding after Storm Henk and Storm Babet, the council made tackling the climate emergency one of its priorities.

With the option to use the flood money defeated, the vote moved to the alternative recommendation that the council not award a new contract, and conclude any financial liability arrangements with the leisure centre.

That recommendation was approved with 13 votes for, two votes against and 10 abstentions.

The decision will have to be confirmed by the cabinet at a later date.

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