A WELL-LOVED community facility could be saved at the eleventh hour after a group of concerned residents threw it a lifeline.

A community-led partnership has been formed in a bid to take over the running of the South Cerney Outdoor Education Centre which has been earmarked for closure by Gloucestershire County Council.

The centre, based on Lake 12, Spine Road, will close by the end of the summer as part of county council plans to save £108million from its budget over the next four years.

It costs GCC £200,000 a year to run the centre and its closure was confirmed last month.

All 25 staff employed at the centre, plus a number of volunteers, have been handed their redundancy notices.

Temporary staff are expected to leave the centre by the end of March and full-time staff will leave at the end of August, when the centre shuts.

But a new partnership has thrown a lifeline to supporters of SCOEC.

Led by local users and a range of interested parties, the partnership, known as the Lake 12 Partnership, has submitted its outline for the future running of the site to GCC.

The group has support from many centre-users including Thameswey Canoe Club, The Disabled Sailing Association, Navy Training Corps, Cirencester Dolphins Sub-Aqua Club and Gloucestershire Scouts.

The formation of the partnership comes after nearly 1,500 people signed an e-petition on the GCC website to keep the centre open.

Another 2,500 people have signed paper petitions to save the facility.

Dave Mellor, chairman of Thameswey Canoe Club, which is based at Lake 12, said: "Local people and users of Lake 12 felt incredibly strongly that this facility should remain open and available for the local community, and the support has been overwhelmingly positive.

"We are confident that this can become a self-funded facility that remains open and available to a local community that has clearly shown how much it is valued."

Last month GCC extinguished fears that the site would be sold to property developers by saying it would work with groups willing to take over the site.

Paul Trott, county commissioner of Gloucestershire Scouts, said: "This is a unique place that has been offering outdoor education and training facilities for 40 years to a wide range of diverse groups, including Scouts, Guides and school groups, from all over Gloucestershire and beyond and it is genuinely inclusive.

"This is why so many parties have volunteered to work together to keep this precious asset open and have formed the Lake 12 Partnership to take it forward with GCC."