Battle to keep North Wiltshire's leisure centres open

8:34pm Friday 16th February 2007

By Benjamin Parkes

All six leisure centres in North Wiltshire will be closed on Tuesday, unless the council pulls off a miracle.

After lengthy negotiations with North Wiltshire District Council the trust that runs the centres has guaranteed to keep them open until 10pm on Monday.

After that point the centres will shut, NWLL goes into liquidation, and the responsibility falls to the council and its new leisure contractor, DC Leisure, to provide leisure services.

The Gazette understands a deal for DC Leisure to take over the centres immediately broke down this afternoon because of difficulties over transferring staff contracts.

The council is desperate to avoid the embarrassment of having closed notices on all of its centres during half-term week.

It is working frantically to broker an agreement between NWLL and DC Leisure that will ensure the centres stay open beyond Monday night.

The council has not yet guaranteed an agreement of this sort because DC Leisure was only expecting to take over on April 1, and as such, the centres are heading for closure on Monday evening.

If this happens it will be disastrous for the White Horse in Calne and Cricklade leisure centre, because they have been left out of council plans to keep centres open.

The doors will close, boilers switched off, pools drained and they may never open again.

The situation is different for the Olympiad, Springfield, Malmesbury and Lime Kiln in Wootton Bassett. These four will re-open on April 1 when DC Leisure takes up the contract to run them under council jurisdiction.

Unless the council can convince DC Leisure to take over on Tuesday all six centres will close. There are a number of obstacles to overcome before DC Leisure agrees to take on the contract including leisure centre staff contracts. NWLL has stipulated that the terms and conditions enjoyed by staff must continue unchanged. It is one of the few guarantees it secured from the council during tense crisis talks today.

Now the council must convince DC Leisure to take on every member of staff on the same contracts until April 1.

On this date the company can legally re-organise the staff quota at each of the four centres it has agreed to keep open. Staff at White Horse and Cricklade will not automatically lose their jobs. Instead, every employee will be required to re-apply for his or her job and the best will be kept on to continue to run the Olympiad, Springfield, Malmesbury and Lime Kiln.

The council faces continuing crisis talks on Monday as it tries to keep the centres open and all just three months away from the local elections.

However, NWLL, the troubled trust that has tried and failed to run our six leisure centres, will give up control on Monday, and disappear for good.

Mike Buckley, chairman of the trust, said: "All efforts will be made to operate a full service until this time, subject to meeting all health and safety obligations.

"Unless a transfer of staff and service to another provider can be guaranteed by 10.00pm on Monday 19th February all centres will be closed."