A FORMER Tetbury leisure centre worker has blasted a school's consultation on a planned takeover of the sports facility.

Cotswold District Council is planning to outsource the running of leisure centres to a not-for-profit organisation, and both Farmor's School in Fairford and Sir William Romney's schools have expressed an interest in taking over their local facilities.

But the Tetbury resident, who did not want to be named, said that a public survey by Sir William Romney’s School missed the key audience – leisure centre users.

He claims many leisure centre users are against the scheme because they are worried the Tetbury school will turn it into a private centre during term time.

"The school has been trying to get control of the leisure centre for a long time," he said. "There is a fear that they will take hours away and put prices up."

He added that many parents were worried about what would happen to the after school club that currently runs during the week and in school holidays at the centre.

But Tetbury town councillor Barry Gibbs, who is also a governor at Sir William Romney’s and CDC's cabinet member for cultural and leisure services which is responsible for the decision, said: "The school’s aim of this is to increase the community use of the sports and activities centre. The after school club is part of that."

He refuted any suggestion that leisure centre users had not been consulted properly.

"The survey was in a magazine that goes out to 4,200 houses and businesses not only in Tetbury but also the surrounding villages," Cllr Gibbs said. "I would think it’s likely that nearly all leisure centre users would be in that area."

Sir William Romney's headteacher Steven Mackay said 97 responses had been received, with 20 people indicating they were leisure centre members. He said around 90 per cent of all responses were either positive or neutral.

"Only ten came back with a negative view and it was mainly to do with the centre not being run by CDC, rather than a problem with the school," Mr Mackay said. "If there was a lot of feeling against this we would have had more negative responses."

The scheme is yet to get the formal support of Tetbury Town Council because the school has not provided the council with a plan of action.

Tetbury mayor Cllr Rob McCorkell said: "We would rather see the local leisure centre come under the control of a local organisation like the school, but at the moment we don’t have any idea of what the school plans to do."