Leisure centres stay open - for now (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Leisure centres stay open - for now

5:33pm Monday 19th February 2007

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LEISURE Centres in Malmesbury and Cricklade will remain open until at least the end of March.

After a day of agony for residents, North Wiltshire District Council leader Carol O'Gorman announced late this afternoon (FEB19) that a deal to keep its six centres up and running had finally been thrashed out.

It means the new firm in charge of the centres will take over responsibility at 10pm tonight (FEB19) when North Wiltshire Leisure Ltd finally goes out of business.

If an agreement had not been reached the Activity Zone could have been closed for up to six weeks. Cricklade's centre will open, but its future is still up in the air.

In a statement read by Carol O'Gorman to protesters outside the council offices on Monday she said the agreement had been struck after a day of negotiations.

"Negotiations continued throughout the day to try and ensure the leisure centres remain open until the end of March," she said.

"The negotiations have been extremely complex due to the issues surrounding the transfer of staff.

"NWLL staff will be transferred to the council up to March 31, until they are transferred to a new service provider.

"All six leisure centres will therefore be open for business as usual from Tuesday morning on February 20.

"The council did not want to see these leisure centres close and has done everything it could in this difficult situation to keep the centres open.

"In light of the above information, negotiations will continue with Keep Leisure in Cricklade to try and find possible solutions for these centres from April onwards."

In Malmesbury desperate parents had been flooding the town council with calls demanding to know whether the centre would be open tomorrow for their children's half term holiday club.

And worried pensioners feared they could lose their weekly group physiotherapy sessions.

Town clerk Jeff Penfold said: "We are extremely relieved. We are concerned that it got to this stage, but nevertheless we are pleased for all those who had booked their children in.

"Now we are calling on local people to make sure they support the leisure centre."

NWLL's demise comes amid reports of financial mismanagement and commercial naivety. It was given £250,000 extra last year to allow it to pay the bills and wages.

But the deepening financial problems led to the district authority's decision late last year to close three of the six centres including Cricklade. Wootton Bassett later got a reprieve, but an action group formed to save Cricklade is still fighting.

The board had hoped the business could stagger on until March 31, but when the council refused to cough up more extra cash the decision was taken to put it into liquidation.

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