Leisure centre’s continued closure causes concern for residents

The sports hall in Pentywn Leisure Centre has remained closed desite Cardiff Council promisng to reopen it earlier this month.

Its doors have been closed since the start of the pandemic and residents – who have petitioned for its reopening – have no idea when that will happen.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Pentwyn, Dan Naughton, said there has been a lack of communication.

“It has been frustrating, you know, and we tell residents we are hoping it opens in March, and we are already midway through March, and we do not know exactly when it is going to reopen,” he said.

Since it closed to the public in  March 2020 the Leisure Centre has been used as a training facility for Cardiff Rugby and as a vaccination centre. 

However, it has been empty for the last seven months since the vaccine centre closed.

Cardiff Council announced £5 million of funding to refurbish the centre’s gym and pool. However, this is yet to happen.

This means that even if the sports hall does reopen, residents will still have to travel elsewhere to use other leisure facilities.

“Llanishen is the one most people use but again if you do not have access to a car it can be quite difficult to use public transport to get there so it is quite hard,” said Councillor Naughton.

“The pool has been the heart of the community and the leisure centre as a whole, so it has been quite frustrating for residents.”

Cardiff Council took over the running of the facility from the private company Better and it then had an agreement in place with Cardiff Rugby. 

Both have been contacted for comment.