Leisure in Northumberland
Two long established Northumberland based leisure charities, Blyth Valley Arts and Leisure (BVAL) and North Country Leisure (NCL), are now developing their partnership more formally. A new joint charity, “Active Northumberland” is being set up between both organisations to manage and develop leisure services in North, West and South East Northumberland on behalf of Northumberland County Council.
The new charity will run large and well-known leisure sites such as Concordia and the Sporting Club in Cramlington, Willowburn in Alnwick, Waterworld at Prudhoe, Blyth Sports Centre, and Wentworth Leisure Centre in Hexham, as well as some more specialist sites such as the Beach Huts at Blyth, the Tyne Riverside Country Park building in Prudhoe, Rothbury Pool and Gym and the Pegasus Riding Centre near Morpeth, all currently run by either NCL or BVAL. Leisure facilities at several school sites in Blyth, Cramlington and Prudhoe are also managed for community use as well as sports development services across the county, encouraging communities to develop activities and providing sports coaching in areas where access to services is more difficult.
The Ambler comments: It is great to see that the county council is encouraging sport in the north, west and south east of the county, but we couldn’t see any mention of Amble.
