How a grassroots effort to save an abandoned leisure centre grew into something much more

“It’s hard to explain to people we’re running the centre for the benefit of local people,” says Andy Brooks. “We’re trying to cater for people that wouldn’t normally go to gyms.” 

Brooks is the commercial manager of BeActive Urmston, located in the Urmston suburb of Manchester. Those walking through the doors might be older than a typical gym-goer, or live with long-term health conditions. “Basically someone you wouldn’t imagine walking into a PureGym,” he says. 

But the leisure centre could easily not exist. Back in 2016, the local council announced the George H Carnall leisure centre was being shut and knocked down. That launched a community campaign to save the hub – culminating in the centre reopening in June 2021. Rather than being run for profit, its goal is now to serve the community. 

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When Brooks and his colleagues got hold of the keys, they knew they had a challenge on their hands. “It had had the lights turned off for two years, cobwebs,” he says. 

They set to work, with staff painting walls and gutting kitchens. Bank accounts were opened, card machines acquired. Local clubs were brought in as clients, building up a revenue base. 

It is not an easy existence. “Take money wherever we can get money,” remains the order of the day. But this ethos means BeActive can do things other leisure centres can’t. There are NHS services based in the building offering help on fall prevention, pulmonary issues and rehab from strokes.

There are also school nurses and social workers. Filming for TV shows like Waterloo Road and Brassic brings in money. Filming for a Nike advert nearly brought a basketball megastar through the doors, Brooks says: “LeBron James was supposed to be in our gym.” 

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This in turn can bring in people who might not usually engage with typical leisure activities, such as those living in poverty. “They’re not going to come in and use those facilities, necessarily, but they might pop in for a brew because we’re next to a park,” says Brooks. 

BeActive has been supported with investment from Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of Big Issue. Funding has helped the group to secure the leasehold to the building, and their expertise has helped with work on the building’s roof and insulation. 

As council budgets come under increasing strain, communities are often stepping in to make sure there is still access to healthy activities. “There used to be much more investment from local authorities into leisure. That’s kind of disappeared over the past five, 10 years,” says Kirsty Cumming, CEO of Community Leisure UK. 

Because leisure centres are not statutory services, they can fall behind other things. “Leisure is never going to be top of that list, unfortunately. It’s always a case of whatever is left down at the bottom of the priority list,” says Cumming. 

But this can have dire consequences for more deprived areas. “If a local authority is looking purely at the finances, the income, expenditure, some of the areas of deprivation might be less affluent, less profitable, potentially less able to run sustainable operation,” said Cumming. “But actually, the need might be the greatest for those people.” 

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