Join the New Mills Leisure Centre Campaign
Let’s prevent High Peak Borough Council from destroying our squash court and shrinking our sports hall.
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⚡Live until Jan 10 2025⚡ The council are running a public consultation meeting on the future of the leisure centre. Have your say.
What’s happening?
Our leisure centre is under threat
Council leaders tried to quietly push through plans to remove our squash court and shrink our sports hall. However, news of these plans got out, and after months of community-led campaigning they have finally launched a full public consultation.
What’s in store for the leisure centre?
High Peak Borough Council have asked leisure centre users to choose between three investment options for New Mills Leisure Centre. One of these options would reduce the size of our current sports hall, and two of these options would involve removing the squash court.
Squash
Only one of the three options under the consultation would enable us to keep the court.
Sports hall
One of the three options provided by the council involved sacrificing a quarter of our sports hall to build a new gym and fitness studio.
Impact
What’s wrong with these plans?
The leisure centre is currently a thriving hub of sports activities for many sports clubs, 1400 school children and a well-established squash club. People of all ages use the centre to improve their wellbeing, make friends and get fit. It supports the council’s own Move More strategy by providing a diversity of sporting activities (not just gym and fitness classes).
Hannah Hodgson
Director of The Club Squash CIC
“The national agenda is to get more people more active. Squash and racketball provides an opportunity for connections, friendship and fitness, improving the wellbeing of body and mind. We simply cannot be in a position where removing facilities is deemed a positive step.”
Catherine Chadwick
Sports hall petition signee
“Removing this vital facility contradicts the council’s Move More strategy and worsens inactivity in the area. It will have an enormously negative effect on children’s sport in New Mills. This venue brings together people of all ages, genders and abilities to enjoy a wide variety of activities.”
Destroy our squash court and…
Never get it back
Lose a tailor made expensive-to-build, specialist facility which hundreds of people in New Mills enjoy
Destroy our growing junior squash programme (30 juniors and counting)
Destroy the two New Mills Mixed league teams (established 40 years ago) and growing ladies team.
Prevent new people starting the sport
Miss out on the expected boom in squash when it becomes an Olympic sport in 2028
Shrink our sports hall and….
Decimate New Mills top-class schools’ programme for 1400 children permanently reducing sport, wellbeing and fitness opportunities for young people
Take its size down below the Sport’s England recommended minimum size for sports halls.
Make it impossible to play basketball, indoor cricket and netball and a number of other team sports
Make it impossible to play team sports at a competitive league level such as volleyball and futsal.
Create an unmeetable demand for extra time slots due to overcrowded pickleball club nights.
What do we want?
To ensure the long-term future of the leisure centre
To save our squash court and full-sized sports hall
To retain our vital school sports facilities
Meaningful public consultation
Good investment decisions that people want
Provision for a wider variety of sports – not fewer
Option 1 of the council’s plans:
👎 Prioritises gyms and fitness classes at the expense of other activities
👎 Reduces sporting opportunities for children in and out of school time
👎 Destroys many team sports
👎 Favours profitability over wellbeing and mental health
👎 Reduces the number of sports available to people in New Mills and their chances to stay active
👎 Places needless competitive pressure on locally owned gyms
👎 Misses the point of what a community leisure centre should be about
Not happy? Make sure you engage in the consultation.
Has this matter been handled well?
We believe this matter could have been dealt with much better. Here’s why:
This is our community centre
In the 70s and 80s, the people of New Mills successfully fundraised £75,000 for the swimming pool, squash facilities and sports hall. Hard working people organised fundraising events and even collected milk bottle caps and newspapers to raise money. See our history page.
No initial consultation
These plans were cooked up by High Peak Borough Council without any initial consultation with the people of New Mills. To try and avoid consulting the people of New Mills on this matter is disrespectful, especially given the community’s foundational role in its existence.
Secret talks
The council have conducted their talks in secrecy, excluding the public from attending committee meetings about the future plans for the leisure centre, and not publishing their discussions and plans in the public domain.
A restricted consultation
The consultation asks people to state their preferences between three options. The options are organised so that if you want to save both the sports hall, and the squash court, you need to turn down broader redevelopment funding.
Prioritisation of financial aspects before people
Whilst financial considerations are undeniably crucial, this should not be at the cost of our children’s health and sporting opportunities for all.
Credit: High Peak Reporter, ‘opening of sports hall in Leisure Centre’, June 1988.
A better way to invest?
In March 2024 we submitted this document to the council, however ultimately none of these ideas are reflected in the council’s three proposed options.
Please dip into this document to see what we had suggested.
See full link to our proposals. Note that this proposal was created in response to the initial HPBC proposals, which are now “option 1” of the consultation.
There is hope!
One of the options proposed in the consultation saves both the squash court and the sports hall. Our only hope to save both facilities is if enough of us express a preference for this option.
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Save New Mills Leisure Centre Facilities
Join the campaign to prevent High Peak Borough Council from destroying our squash court and shrinking our sports hall.