Yahoo News Birtley swimming pool reopens after £400,000 effort to save it from closure
Swimmers flocked to Birtley’s pool on Monday as the beloved community facility opened its doors for the first time in more than a year.
The Durham Road site was shut down by Gateshead Council in July 2023, but has been saved thanks to a £400,000 fundraising effort led by local swimming clubs who have taken over its management. There was joy and relief at the centre on Monday morning, as the rebranded Birtley Community Pool welcomed back members of the public to its waters.
Local mum Emma Campbell and her son, two-year-old Conan, were among the first people to return to the refurbished facility. The 37-year-old told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It is brilliant to have the pool back open. I am so grateful to all of the volunteers who put so much hard work in to make this happen. It is great for our community.
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“I used to swim here myself once a week but I have stopped swimming altogether since it closed. I used to come on my lunch break when I was working from home and I am really looking forward to getting back to swimming.
“We have been taking the kids to Washington or Blaydon, but less often than we would here. We have been to the Waves pool in Whitley Bay as well, which is a really long way away.”
A new Birtley Community Aquatic Centre (BCAC) community group took the keys to the pool earlier this year, having been handed control of it by the council. Breathing new life into the swimming pool has been a huge undertaking – with its revamp including the installation of new boilers, LED lighting and security measures, as well as a deep clean of the pool area and changing rooms.
The pool’s water slide, which had been out of use before the council closed the pool down, has been completely refurbished and an 18m-long inflatable obstacle course has been purchased in an effort to make the centre more attractive to families. More than £400,000 has been raised from a variety of sources – including a £272,000 grant from the Government’s Community Ownership Fund, £18,000 from Sport England, and £23,000 in crowdfunding donations.
BCAC treasurer Matthew Grant said that getting the centre open had been a “massive challenge”. He added: “The staff and trustees have all worked incredibly hard and we are looking forward to seeing lots of people from the local community getting the benefits of swimming, for both their physical and mental health.
“We need more people to come here than used to when the council ran it – and we have more attractions to help that happen. We have the slide operational again, we have the inflatable obstacle course. We are particularly looking forward to getting lots of families in at the weekends for activities when both the obstacle course and the slide will be operating during the afternoons, from 2pm to 4pm.
“I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the people and businesses in the community who have supported us to get the pool open, through their crowdfunding campaign and through other donations as well as through volunteering their time to help.”
Laura Hughes, 59, from Ouston, was happy to see the pool open again. She told the LDRS: “It’s really nice to have it back and to have it as somewhere to come and exercise. I used to come here sometimes before it closed but I have had to go to Chester-le-Street instead since then, so it is really handy for me to have it back.”
