A group of locals have shared an open letter to Rutland County Council following the announcement from the local authority that the future of Catmose Sports Centre hangs in the balance.

Following public outcry at the potential closure of Catmose Sports Centre last year, Rutland County Council (RCC) worked with the current operators to keep the centre open for another 12 months - but with this contract nearly up, the future of the local gym and sports centre is once again an uncertain one.

In a renewed display of support for the much-loved fitness facility, the 'Save Catmose Sports Centre' group have shared an open letter to Rutland County Council.

The open letter reads:

Dear Councillors,

The Save Catmose Sports Centre team once again want to reiterate the value of the Catmose Sports Centre to our local community.

Last year, we put together a document. The document was designed to give a summary of the physical, mental health and community benefits that Catmose Sports Centre brings to Rutland.

We note that some of yourselves are newly voted councillors and want to ensure you have all of the information and background surrounding the Catmose Sports Centre so you can make a fully informed decision. Our local community has placed their trust in yourselves and voted you in to support the community. I hope you have heard many of their voices already. You will also be aware from the email trail, that we amassed over 2,300 signatures in support of keeping Catmose Sports Centre open last year.

We have a growing community and a growing local economy, with many new residential developments which seek to sell Oakham as a thriving community with all amentities available locally. Families actively want to move to Oakham and the Catmose Sports Centre offering is valuable to those families in making their decision.

Whilst we note that the aforementioned document is a little outdated, most of the information and data is still very relevant and some of the key points are below:

• Catmose Sports Centre remains the centre of many community based clubs o Kick-boxing, Walking football, dance, skate club, badminton - to name a few.
• Catmose Sports Centre has the widest and most extensive variety of exercise classes to suit everyone
• There are currently over 60 classes per week, all very well attended.
• Catmose Sports Centre is a busy sports centre with well over 900 members and growing
• The longer term investment will inevitably secure more members
• Catmose Sports Centre is a Community based amenity
• Children's Parties
• School holiday clubs
• School holiday community clubs (dance camps, football camps etc)
• Charity fundraisers eg. Leicester children's hospital

Short term financial implications

Closing the centre will mean there is are short term financial implications, of course these seem to be exempt from the public, but we envisage there will be utility costs that are currently shared by SLL and the Catmose Schools federation, but also there will be a cost to be returned to Sport England as cited here.

The recent budget was signed off on a net-nil cost to RCC for Catmose, despite the decision and vote apparently allowing for other options to be considered. We accept that a vote to keep Catmose open will require revisiting the budget (we draw your attention to the proposals we suggested in our report last year on Alternative Provisions Options as attached) however we assume there will need to revisit the budget given the utility costs and the Sport England clawback.

Mid to Long term Community Impacts

As well as having a huge impact upon the community, you will of course be well aware that there will be mid to longer term implications for our community, such as mental health and physical health which will of course over time impact RCC budgets as the community turns to access healthcare service provision in the community as mental and physical health decline due to lack of local and accessible leisure facilities.

Environmental and Economic Benefits

There are also implications for our local environment, Catmose Sports Centre is a central location, many can access public transportation, walk or cycle to the centre. The ease of travel to the centre also mean the local community groups benefit, if they had to relocate the numbers attending these groups would also be affected, that is, if they are even able to find acceptable local alternative provision.

These elements all draw the community to Oakham and allows them to access services in Oakham Town Centre, driving a higher footfall and increasing the local economy.

We hope that you find this email and attached document provides you all with useful context to support your vote on the future of this highly valuable community asset and that you take your communities needs into consideration when placing your vote on 25 March.

Kind Regards

On behalf of,

Save Catmose Sports Centre

The Council will be making a decision on Monday 25 March regarding the future of the facility. While the meeting will be public, the council have reserved the right to remove the public and pause a live stream of the meeting at any point.

RCC explained: "Full Council debate and a decision on the contract for Catmose Sports Centre is expected to take place in a private session because it relates to a live procurement exercise and will require the disclosure of commercially sensitive financial information, supplied by leisure operators as part of a confidential bidding process.

"The meeting on Monday 25 March will be open to the public and streamed online via the Council's website, as normal. However, if Council needs to move into private session, members of the public will be asked to leave the Council Chamber and the live video stream suspended."

Read more about the upcoming meeting, procurements process and leisure centre here.

Alternatively, get in touch to share your views by emailing [email protected].