'They closed our leisure centre. Within months the anti-social behaviour and vandalism began'

As plans to demolish the Woodchurch Estate's leisure centre move on, and anti-social behaviour increases, many residents say they feel nobody cares about them or their community.

- LIAM THORP reports

O one knows the Woodchurch Estate like Lenny Fowler.

He has lived on the sprawling housing development in the Upton area of Wirral for 72 of his 73 years and has spent his life trying to make things better for the people who live here.

After running boxing clubs, football teams and darts leagues for the local community, Lenny says he has officially given up on this place. “No one gives a s*** about the Woodchurch’, he laments.

Clad in a flat cap and zipped down black Lonsdale jacket, he sighs heavily as he looks around at the place he cares so much about.

Walking with his rescue dog Missy in tow, Lenny directs the ECHO down to the shuttered Woodchurch Leisure Centre. This place was the heart of this community for 60 years but now stands as a dilapidated symbol of what has been lost.

Lenny points to a sign on the front of the closed down facility, which reads ‘Department of Education and Cultural Services} and gives a knowing look.

“In the 60s and 70s you could go and do everything in that centre - dentists, doctors - its all just been taken away,” he adds.

Woodchurch Leisure Centre closed in March 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022 it was earmarked for demolition as part of a £20m budget cuts plan passed by Wirral Council, which has found itself in a dire financial crisis in recent years.

The leisure centre had been heavily subsidised by the cash-strapped local authority who said it would have needed significant repairs to restore, but the local community weren't prepared to lose it without a fight.

Supporters raised an impressive £83,000 to try and take over the running of the centre. But in 2023 the council decided not to allow that bid to move forward and pushed forward with the demolition plan instead. Earlier this month two contracts worth £1.3m were agreed to remove asbestos and pull down the building.