Councillor Alex Wallace urges Northumberland Conservatives to take a trip to Barnstaple to change their minds about Bedlington Leisure

 

Almost a decade on after the ‘Make a Noise’ for Bedlington event when Northumberland Conservatives stirred up the local population to ensure that Bedlington received a better commercial deal for local shoppers and demanded a leisure facility was built in the town to rival the local towns of Cramlington, Ashington and Morpeth who had new or improved leisure facilities either planned or in train.

 The then labour Council went full steam ahead and produced plans for both the town centre revitalisation to be known as Pipers Place and a study to build a leisure facility at Gallagher Park a site shared by both Town Councils, East and West Bedlington to ensure parity between the areas after the dry side facility built by Labour at Bedlington high school was heavily criticised by West Bedlington Town Councillors.

 Labour lost control of the Council in May 2017 and the incoming Tory council have, covid apart, dillied and dallied on the Town Centre plans and have not taken up the mantle for planning a Leisure facility.

 Councillor Alex Wallace is very concerned at their lack of initiative and is pointing the way to a new facility as an idea for Bedlington which has been developed at a cost effective £15M in Barnstaple by North Devon Council, £6M cheaper than the Ashington and Morpeth developments.

 Councillor Wallace said: “Its been well reported that Eddie the Eagle Edwards has opened a new leisure centre in Barnstaple, home of Tarka the Otter with a 25m 8 lane competition pool, a 20m 4 lane learner pool a sports hall with space for 4 badminton courts, a large gym, 2 exercise studios a spinning area and play areas for young people and to top it all off is complete with an endless ski slope”.

 
He went on to say: “This sounds like a very affordable proposition that would become an unmitigated success in Bedlington, as we have the site and have the will of our residents who want facilities of this nature and with the rising ground of the old pit heap sitting alongside the site we could power this facility sustainably using a solar array also sitting on County Council land". 

 

"I urge the current administration to go and visit this facility taking local Councillors with them and view what on paper seems an excellent use of levelling up, infrastructure and section 106 funding that will come our way as developments begin in earnest around the River Blyth Estuary and housing follows the growth of industry.”