Lifeline for county's leisure centres (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Lifeline for county's leisure centres

THE cash-strapped company that runs Malmesbury's Activity Zone, Cricklade Leisure Centre and four other leisure centres across North Wiltshire has been thrown a £250,000 lifeline by the district council.

North Wiltshire Leisure Ltd would not have been able to pay its 400 staff and creditors this month without the extra money according to a confidential council report leaked last week.

Last October NWLL's chief executive Mike Parlour, commercial director Gary Milne and head of finance and administration Bruce Ponting were suspended, ending an investigation into the running of the centres.

At an emergency meeting of the council last week councillors agreed to advance NWLL £250,000 out of next year's grant.

The leader of the North Wiltshire District Council Carol O'Gorman said: "The money that has been requested by the NWLL board is an advance for the provision of leisure in the district.

"We are working with NWLL and being updated regularly on their progress and plans, and we are looking forward to seeing their detailed business plan that should be complete by March.

"Leisure provision continues to be one the council's priorities and we are keen to make sure that they very best level of leisure service is provided here."

At Tuesday night's meeting of the council Cllr Philip Allnatt said: "A year ago we voted for a subsidy for NWLL.

"We knew then there were some difficulties, and now these are coming to a head.

"This is a very serious situation and I understand from speaking to council officers that we cannot do any more at this stage."

Malmesbury town councillor John Lawton, who chairs the town council's leisure and youth committee, said he was astonished about the developments.

He said: "The Activity Zone represents NWDC's biggest investment in leisure services for Malmesbury and the villages.

"You don't expect the company running it having to be bailed out from the public purse after such a short time in operation.

"We want to see the Activity Zone being properly and appropriately managed to provide the services the community rightly expects."

Cllr Lawton hoped that the forthcoming business plan would ensure that people of all income groups could afford to use the facilities at the leisure centre.

"Though it had a short season, the outdoor swimming pool, which the district council closed, provided an affordable day out for families," he said.

"Some people find the AZ facilities quite expensive to use, but obviously we do not want to see it closed."

NWLL also runs the Olympiad in Chippenham, the White Horse Centre in Calne, Springfield Centre in Corsham and the Lime Kiln Centre in Wootton Bassett. No one at NWLL was available for comment yesterday.