Gloucester GL1 leisure centre to reopen swimming pool 'in weeks'

A leisure centre that shut when the charity trust running it went into liquidation, will reopen its swimming pool "within weeks", civic chiefs say.

The GL1 leisure centre and Oxstalls sports park closed suddenly on 29 September because of trust Aspire's financial trouble.

The closure resulted in the loss of 150 jobs and sports clubs were left without a leisure centre to train in.

Councillors have yet to confirm a date for the swimming pool's reopening.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Conservative council chiefs had been blasted as "uncaring", for not directly hiring former Aspire staff who lost their jobs.

Since the closure, Gloucester City Council has come up with the plan to reopen the facilities along with bringing in an interim provider to run the services before a long term contract is awarded next year.

One of the conditions for the interim provider is to offer guaranteed job interviews for staff who were made redundant.

But Liberal Democrat councillors say they should have been taken on by the council directly and a date for re-opening should already have been set.

However, the Tory administration said they should not be criticised for the failures of Aspire and the main focus was simply to get the facilities reopened as soon as possible.

Lib Dem group leader Jeremy Hilton said GL1's Barton Pool also required substantial investment, including the reinstatement of a seating area.

An extraordinary city council meeting is due to be held on 19 October to discuss Aspire's financial fiasco and the Lib Dems have tabled a motion calling on council bosses to directly employ redundant staff as soon as possible.

"Around 150 people have been made redundant and I am concerned the city council is not guaranteeing they will be re-employed in the future," said Mr Hilton, who said the Tories were "uncaring".

But Councillor Andy Lewis, culture and leisure cabinet member, said the authority was solely concentrating on getting the job done and reopening as soon as possible.

"To say we are uncaring is a bit flippant to say the least. Of course we care," said Mr Lewis.

He said the comments do not help the general situation over the issues.

"It's disappointing, especially now we've got half of Oxstalls up and running, the rest will be up and running this weekend and we are looking at getting the gymnastics open as they've got their own first aiders," Mr Lewis added.

Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust's Board of Trustees said in a statement last week that the charity had faced some challenging conditions over the last few years and before going into liquidation had tried hard to solve its problems.

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