Hadley Stadium to be ditched and leisure centre to close under Sandwell Council's cost-cutting plans

Sandwell Council has revealed it is looking to give up Hadley Stadium in Smethwick and close the town’s Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre as part of plans to save more than £500,000 this year.

The council also plans to make changes with “significantly lower costs” to Tipton Sports Academy under the move.

The plans were discussed by the council’s budget scrutiny board at a meeting on Thursday (January 23) as the Black Country authority looks to save £536,000 by “reviewing” its leisure facilities.

The three sites are run by Sandwell Leisure Trust on behalf of Sandwell Council.

At the meeting, Ben Percival, an assistant director at Sandwell Council responsible for the borough’s leisure centres, said the money-saving measures involved ‘transferring the council-owned Hadley Stadium to a third party.’ He added that Tipton Sports Academy would be run with a “significantly different operating model … [with a] significantly lower cost.”

Cllr Ashley Lewis, who represents the Smethwick ward, said Hadley Stadium was once called the borough’s ‘jewel in the crown’ but had been left to crumble on purpose.

“In my opinion, both [of the sites] have been subject to managed decline deliberately, particularly Harry Mitchell,” he said at the budget scrutiny meeting.

“The issue that I have is that it has probably been in a state of disrepair for seven or eight years without any investment.”

Cllr Ellen Fenton, chair of the budget scrutiny board, said: “These venues are not the first venues that we have watched decline. I would want some reassurances that we are not going to see repeat behaviour with even more venues.

“Smethwick Baths had no investment, Brandhall golf course received no investment, Langley swimming baths received no investment, Harry Mitchell has had no investment and now looks like it will close or be re-purposed. There’s a theme here.

“Hadley Stadium is a well-loved venue for many people on the southern side of the border. Many schools in the area have their sports days there.”

She went on to say the proposals showed to the public “a company that was not looking after Sandwell’s assets.”

“At one point, those assets were the crown jewels in Sandwell and those crown jewels weren’t polished,” Cllr Fenton added.

“This is something that the public are seriously concerned about. We all know about the benefits of exercise and the poverty levels of the borough.”

Sandwell Council pays £4m a year to Sandwell Leisure Trust to run the borough’s facilities on its behalf. However the local authority is still responsible for repairs and maintenance under the agreement. An extra £144,000 is being set aside this year for the ongoing maintenance of Sandwell Aquatics Centre which opened to the public in 2023.

The council’s contract with Sandwell Leisure Trust ends in 2027 following an agreement by cabinet in October 2023.

Earlier concerns over the council’s contract with Sandwell Leisure Trust in 2021 were one of the reasons the authority was placed into special measures by the then Conservative government a year later.

The council initially scrapped its contract with Sandwell Leisure Trust with effect from May 2023 but later agreed a new deal under “revised” terms to continue running the borough’s leisure centres until 2027.

A decision by the council’s cabinet in June 2022 to look into forming an ‘arms-length’ company to replace Sandwell Leisure Trust and run the borough’s leisure centre remains ‘postponed’.

Alan Lunt, the council’s director for place, rejected accusations the facilities had been on purpose, saying leisure facilities in Sandwell had actually seen “managed improvement.”

“We have got to make sure that we balance the needs of the community with our ability as a council to actually manage effectively and to afford what we have at the moment, which is very extensive leisure facilities right across the borough,” he told councillors.

Sandwell Council said it manages around 4,000 properties – including leisure centres – with the current maintenance budget equalling around only £600 per ‘asset’ per year.

It would cost at least £1.5million to refurbish Harry Mitchell leisure centre to a “usable” standard, the local authority said.

Cllr Fenton asked whether ‘legacy’ money from the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham could have been used to revitalise the facilities and support future gold medal winners in the Black Country.

“Is there any particular reason that we didn’t explore options, knowing that Hadley Stadium was going down?” she asked. “Because I’m going to assume that our partners, who are paid money to manage [the facilities], would have identified that this was an issue.

“Were there any talks about maybe using the Commonwealth Games legacy money to re-innovate that area and maybe get local people who could be potential gold medallists in the future? Like we did with the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.”

Assistant director Ben Percival said demand across the borough meant one athletics track was enough.

“If we look specifically at athletics, the only club is Tipton Harriers who are based at Tipton Sports Academy,” he said. “And within a relatively short commute from Sandwell there’s also Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton, the Dell Stadium in Dudley and the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Walsall doesn’t have a track.

“If you look at participation in athletics, particularly track, demand would suggest that one track is adequate for Sandwell.

Trips from Smethwick to Tipton would take at least 30 minutes by car with journeys to tracks in Birmingham, Wolverhampton or Dudley taking from 20 minutes to an hour.