Morley’s new leisure centre opened today. No interior photos, as it says “No cameras beyond this point” just inside the door.
It is very clean and modern, if a little utilitarian. Good to have the facility back though, as we had to do without for a couple of years whilst the new one was rebuilt on the site of the old one which was put up for a price in 1973 when Morley Borough Council knew it was going to be abolished and they didn’t want to simply give the assets to the newly formed Leeds Metropolitan Council (known as Leeds City Council for continuity).
This development is a Private Finance Initiative scheme, so we will still be paying for it long after it has fallen down…
If you are into shots of grinning councillors in hard hats then you can see some of the interiors here.
The comments that I have heard have been negative, but then again they had been expecting a “state of the art” sports centre. The new sports centre is just another mediocre Leeds City Council run sports centre. It lacks ambition, no water slide or flumes, fewer badminton courts, no squash courts, no sauna and no diving pool; but there is a massive gym. Not sure why there is no punch bag, like the council have in their sports centre at Rothwell. I do hope that the council are wrong to dumb down this sports centre, but perhaps with our ‘fat society’, there is no demand for more.
Nigel, bear in mind that the last one was extended and altered several times over its 35 year lifetime to update and enhance facilities (& of course occasionally losing them like the Sauna). I imagine the new build will alter over time as well.
Will I have to wait untill a political party needs some good PR, and Government/Council funds come back? But ‘The Lottery’ NEVER runs out of money.
If you want the best park in this area, type in ‘st ives bingley’ to google. That is probably lottery funded, do our councilors know/care about lottery funding?
Even without the punchbag, a big gym sounds like it should be enough to keep the steroid-muchers happy, and hence less of a danger to the rest of us.