Save Pentwyn Leisure Centre

By Jonathan Golding (Cardiff East Socialist Party)

Pentwyn Leisure Centre never reopened after the pandemic. It is now threatened with downgrading to a smaller pool, with 70% of the site rented to Cardiff Rugby.

The Labour council and GLL/Better – the private company that manages the site – insist that this is the only financially viable option. That is disputed by local people.

Local people will still have to fork out £4 million, through the council, for this downgrading. So, instead, we are campaigning to get the centre fully restored.

Rhian Vernall is a local resident and leader of the Save Pentwyn Leisure Centre campaign. She obtained ‘freedom of information’ figures from Cardiff Council.

Those figures show that before Better assumed management of the centre in 2016, it was one of the most used in Cardiff, with very popular swimming classes. More recent figures are not available, because Better, as a private company, is not subject to freedom of information requests.

There is anger in the communities of Pentwyn, Llanedeyrn and Pontprennau – the main users of the centre. 180 people turned up to a meeting on 30 August, organised in response to the council’s plan.

Labour councillor Jennifer Burke and council officer Steve Morris were present, and got a ‘roasting’. The feelings of people were confirmed by a show of hands – opposition to the current plan and a determination to fight on.

Campaigner Rhian was quoted by Wales Online: “We’re almost being made [to] feel grateful for the fact that they are opening it at all. But what they are opening it with is not what people want or need. The community needs a local facility that is cost effective that will bring people together, that will allow children to engage in sport and health and wellbeing”.

Socialist Party member Katrine Williams, president of Cardiff Trades Union Council, spoke from the floor of the meeting: “Limited resources are cited by the council. So the politicians should stand with trade unionists in fighting for the funding needed for our services. They should stop wielding the axe for the Tories”. She also suggested lobbying the council’s Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee.

There were many other speakers from the floor. A young girl, still in primary school, received loud cheers after she explained how her and her friends’ swimming classes had been disrupted by the closure and delayed opening of the leisure centre.

Our services should be based on need, not on their ability to turn a profit. Cardiff Council has over £100 million in reserves.

Some of this could be used to fund a full refurbishment of the centre. That should be linked to a mass campaign by trade unions and working-class communities to get the money that we need from both the Welsh Labour and UK Conservative governments.