Grim Reapers March on Manchester

As many as a thousand people - some dressed as grim reapers - are due to march through Levenshulme, in protest at the planned closure of the area's swimming pool and library.

They'll meet at 12pm on Saturday outside the Tesco on Stockport Road and walk towards the baths, before a rally at Green Bank Fields.

The pool and library are due to close in July, part of Manchester City Council's plans to save £80 million.

Sue McPherson has lived in Levenshulme for 12 years and says the impact of the changes will be severe:

"Anybody who's working will find it difficult to get to local leisure facilities.

Pregnant women will be massively affected, women with young children because of the ante-natal classes."

The nearest pool will be Manchester Aquatics Centre which is busy and expensive."

Manchester City Council is proposing to replace the pool and library with a new centre in spring 2015.

Its part of a larger consultation, which also affects other services in places like Withington, Chorlton and areas to the east of the city.

You can read the proposals here:

www.manchester.gov.uk/consultations

Councillor Rosa Battle, who's in charge of Culture and Leisure, says the authority is committed to making sure people get the right service in their area:

"We are determined to provide the best services possible to our residents within the severe financial constraints that have been placed on us following the settlement from central government.

"The savings that we have to make will help support our investment in these new generation leisure facilities.

"But these are still just proposals at this stage and we will listen carefully to people's views before putting forward definitive proposals."

Sue, however, is sceptical about the authority's plans to build a new leisure centre in Levenshulme in 2015.

"Since 2011 the council was supposed to produce a business plan with identified land.

None of that has happened. It's now 2013 so its very unlikely that the £10 million that they've put aside for capital investment will come to anything.

They have to find a private contractor, they have to buy land. Our suspicion is that they will simply not do it."