Councillor Jeff Watson is Northumberland County Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for leisure, arts and tourism in the county. Jeff’s work covers leisure facilities, museums and galleries, playparks and libraries. Northumberland Conservatives have been investing in all of these areas since 2017 and are continuing to do so as part of their commitment to delivering value for money for taxpayers, tackling inequalities, and creating jobs through economic growth.
Northumberland Conservatives are investing to deliver first class leisure facilities throughout the county as part of our efforts to improve wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.
As nearby councils such as Labour-run Gateshead Council are closing facilities we are opening new leisure centres and refurbishing existing facilities.
We are increasing the provision of community facilities, such as indoor bowls in the Berwick Leisure Centre and a new soft play area in the refurbished Wentworth Leisure Centre in Hexham. Cramlington has received investment, we are looking at innovative ways to provide library facilities in Bedlington and we have recently approved a £1.5 million project to modernise Prudhoe Waterworld. In the new Morpeth Leisure Centre we have a large library and digital offer and other facilities as well as a cafe and children’s soft play area. Residents are already seeing the benefits of high quality facilities to live healthy lives across Northumberland.
We are investing in sixteen ‘PlayZones’ in towns across the county. These sports facilities will be custom designed, in consultation with local communities to ensure they meet the demands of local people. We have already started asking residents in eight areas what they would like these ‘PlayZones’ to look like. Phase one will include Alnwick, Amble, Newbiggin, Ashington, Bedlington, Hexham, West Wylam and Choppington. Initially we are upgrading existing Multi Use Games Areas and provide lighting to ensure they can be used more frequently. In phase two residents will help design PlayZones in Haltwhistle, Seaton Valley, Berwick, Cramlington, Wooler, Blyth, Lynemouth and East Bedlington.
This summer over 2,400 children across the county took part in our reading challenge in our libraries, with young people reading certain books over the school holidays. Over 1400 of them met the challenging, earning a badge and certificate while developing the lifelong skill of reading. As reading is vital to ensuring young people can get on in life I am glad that no libraries are scheduled to close on my watch, and we will be taking libraries directly to communities when we upgrade our mobile library offer soon.
Our theatres and museums are recovering from the Covid pandemic as visitors are returning with confidence. In Berwick work is underway on our multi-million pound investment at The Maltings and in Alnwick we have provided emergency funding so users can safely enjoy the renovated Alnwick Playhouse we opened back in 2019. In Ashington we have also invested to help maintain Woodhorn Museum. Visitor levels have returned to pre-Covid levels, and in some cases are higher, demonstrating the importance of our commitment to keep on investing in Northumberland’s cultural offering.
Our investment across the whole county is to ensure residents have access to high quality leisure facilities, while residents and visitors alike can enjoy our rich cultural heritage through great arts and tourism facilities.
