Cheshire East Council have now opened their consultation on removing an additional £500,000 from the Leisure Service budget. This is in addition to the £1.3 million that they have already taken from Leisure Service this year. Both these numbers were agreed when the Council passed their budget in February. The £500,000 recently given to Cheshire East by the Government (via Sports England) to help keep pools open, has been counted as part of the £1.3million existing saving.
The consultation is being done in the form of a survey. The consultation can be found via the link below. I would encourage residents to add additional information into the text boxes. Be aware, when answering the questions, that the Leisure Centres marked for closure are not in the most deprived areas (in terms of health outcomes) and that has already led to them being the most at risk.
In addition, if you are a Centre user, if you feel there is something that could be done more cost effectively or not done at all, it is worth including it so that there are some alternatives to just closing Leisure Centres.
Link to consultation: Strategic Leisure Review Consultation 2023 (cheshireeast.gov.uk)
If you can’t get everything you need to on the survey, then a separate email can be sent (the email address is in the attached link) but I would encourage you to do that in addition to and not instead of the survey. Please note the consultation close at midnight on 7th January 2024.
It is critical that as many people as possible share their views, so please feel free to share this email/link. This is our opportunity to stop the closure of Knutsford Leisure Centre.
Rt Hon Esther McVey, Member of Parliament for Tatton
officeofesthermcveymp@parliament.uk tel: 01625 529922