Extraordinary council meeting called as fight to save KLV from closure goes on

An extraordinary council meeting has been called over the future of Kettering Leisure Village’s (KLV) under-threat facilities.

The site – incorporating Kettering Conference Centre, Lighthouse Theatre, Balance Health Club and Arena Sports Centre – is due to close on July 3 unless someone steps in.

But campaigners say it is not too late to save it and have called on North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) or a new management company to keep it open.

Kettering Town Council (KTC) will host a meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, June 7, at the Toller Church Rooms in Meeting Lane. It has been called by town mayor Cllr Emily Fedorowycz (Green) and councillors will discuss the situation and urge NNC to find a solution.

A motion to be discussed at the meeting, proposed by Cllr Clark Mitchell (Lab) and seconded by Cllr Anup Pandey (Con), says: “Kettering Town Council is concerned at the potential closure of Kettering Conference Centre shortly. It strongly believes that the best chance for the centre to flourish in the future is to avoid even a temporary closure now.

"There is an urgent need to find a consortium of interested parties who can pick up and manage the centre and the organisation best placed to convene such a consortium is NNC, which retains a strong interest in the provision of sport, leisure, economic development and the overall welfare of Kettering, of which this building is an important feature. KTC urges NNC and other parties to work closely together to find a workable solution before the building is shut.”

NNC leases KLV from BQ Farms, paying a £1 annual peppercorn rent, an arrangement which was inherited from their predecessor authority, Kettering Borough Council. The council has a contractual arrangement with Phoenix Leisure, which further sublet KLV to Compass Group Services, which made the closure decision. They said costs had increased significantly and that it was no longer financially viable.

At a vocal public meeting on May 19, despite showing sympathy to KLV supporters and vowing to find a solution, NNC leader Cllr Jason Smithers said he could not promise any extra money to bail out the business on top of the £337,000 a year granted for indoor sports courts and the Lighthouse Theatre.

Cllr Mitchell, who proposed the motion for next week’s meeting, said there are still questions to be answered.

He told the Northants Telegraph: “I am really pleased that Cllr Fedorowycz in her capacity as mayor of Kettering has called this extraordinary meeting of the town council.

"Some things transcend party politics and the fact that myself as a Labour councillor, Cllr Pandey as a Conservative councillor and Cllr Fedorowycz as a Green councillor are all working together to get this across the line shows how important it is to the town.

"The previous meeting called by Cllr Keli Watts showed that the town has ideas and a passion to save the theatre and conference centre and hopefully through this formal meeting we will be able to get NNC to answer questions that will help facilitate this.

"I have stated before that I have certain questions that I would like answered, primarily on what caused this financial hole, what the financial hole is and when NNC were first made aware of the issues at KLV.

"Hopefully this will get those answers that the town and residents deserve.”

It had originally been planned that the site would close on May 31 but it was pushed back until July 3 to give more time for alternative solutions to be found.

Campaigners have launched a petition to keep it open, which now has almost 15,000 signatures. Kettering comedian James Acaster, who had been due to host sell-out gigs at the Lighthouse Theatre this summer, also backed calls to save the venue.