Dudley leisure centre review in the pipeline

Dudley Council has confirmed one of the options could be transferring the management of the centres to a private company.

It currently runs Dudley and Halesowen leisure centres as well the Crystal Leisure Centre in Stourbridge, which are used by thousands of people every year.

Council bosses said the review would consider a range of options about the future management of the sites to look at whether savings could be made in future years.

This would be on top of the current programme of £32m of cuts over the next three years.

Director of urban environment John Millar said the council faced 'a very challenging financial situation' and all departments had been tasked with identifying savings.

John Millar, director of urban environment, said: "The council is currently considering a range of options with regard to the future management of the borough's leisure centres to ensure that residents and visitors alike have affordable access to leisure facilities which in turn contributes to the health and wellbeing of those using them.

"The council does face a very challenging financial situation and all council service areas have been challenged to find savings whilst maintaining service provision wherever possible.

"No decisions have been made at this time and we are continuing look at what options are available."

Leader of Dudley's Conservative group, Councillor Patrick Harley has welcomed the review, saying he believed changing the way services were run was better than cutting them back.

"I think they have to look at all of the options. It may be that the leisure centres stay as they are or a private company runs them or we set up an arms lengths company or they're run by a charitable trust.

"There are a lot of options and there are pros and cons of all of the options. I don't think this can be rushed, it's something that needs to be thought about carefully."

Each of the leisure centres has pools, sports halls, gyms, squash courts, soft play areas and function rooms.

During the past two years, the council has invested money in replacing facilities at the centres.

Pool covers were installed at a cost of £19,000 at Halesowen Leisure Centre in a bid to cut energy costs last year.

They are aimed reducing the amount of heat escaping at night.

It is predicted the covers will save around 20 per cent of the energy consumed within the leisure centre, approximately £18,000 per year.

In 2012, dozens of lockers at Dudley's three main leisure centres were replaced at a cost of £114,000 while the swimming pool at Dudley Leisure Centre will close for almost two months a £250,000 project to install new air circulating units was carried out.