Leisure centre in £81k claim against Wolverhampton City Council

DC Leisure, which runs Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre in Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield, says it has been affected by the opening of the Bert Williams Leisure Centre in Bilston.

The Bert Williams Leisure Centre in Bilston was opened in December 2011and has replaced the former Bilston Leisure Centre.

Wolverhampton City Council confirmed a claim had been received but insisted that an assessment had found that the opening of the new centre has not affected the Wednesfield site and rejected the bid.

Now bosses at the council say if DC Leisure refers the matter to an independent adjudicator, they will contest the claim.

The two organisations formed a partnership to open the £13million swimming and fitness centre in 2006 under a private finance initiative that will cost more than £50m by the time it is paid off over 30 years. Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Paul Brown said: "Wolverhampton City Council received a New Competition Benchmarking claim from DC Leisure Management, which operates Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre, following the construction of the new Bert Williams Leisure Centre, which opened in December 2011.

"Competition can be defined as the construction of new facilities, the improvement of existing facilities or the carrying out of new activities at an existing facility.

"The city council accepted that Bert Williams Leisure Centre could be termed as 'New Competition' and, as required, a 12-month assessment was carried out to determine the impact the new centre may have on the existing centre.

"Following this assessment, it is the city council's opinion that Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre has not suffered a net loss of income as a result of the new competition, and therefore it has rejected the claim. The matter has not, however, been formally concluded at this stage."

The Bert Williams centre replaced the ageing Bilston Leisure Centre.

Facilities include an eight-lane 25m swimming pool, a studio pool, sauna, dance studio and a health and fitness suite.

There are also four squash courts, a sports hall, which can be used for badminton, basketball, netball, volleyball and five-a-side football, gym equipment for older people and a special gym for youngsters aged eight to 15.

The £18.6m centre, which opened in 2011, saw 400,000 visitors in its first year of operation. The facility, which is on Nettlefolds Way, Bilston, is named after legendary footballer Bert Williams MBE. The 93-year-old, who is originally from Bradley, made 420 appearances for Wolves and was capped 24 times by England.

DC Leisure was announced as leisure centre operator of the year for 2013 by the Governing body of the leisure industry UK Active.

DC Leisure was unavailable for comment.