The restaurant at Shrewsbury’s Quarry swimming pool made a loss of nearly £40,000 in the last financial year, it has been revealed.

Officials at the Shropshire Council-run site admit the Riverside Rest­aurant has been a failure and are now looking for a private firm to take over the running of the operation.

They say part of the problem is that it is being run by leisure staff rather than trained caterers who have the necessary experience to make it a success.

Tenders are now being invited for companies to register an interest in providing catering services to the Quarry Swimming & Fitness Centre and town park seven days a week.

In a notice on the council’s website, Dominic Wallis, business development manager for culture and leisure services, says: “The Quarry’s Riverside Restaurant is the current operational branding for the café.

“It serves visitors to the swimming pools, leisure facilities and adjacent town park.

“In its current form, the operation has been unable to make a profit and given the potential to attract customers using both the QSFC and the town park, leisure services have decided that operational control would be better with a commercial caterer.

“This is down to a range of factors, not least of which is that the operation is managed by leisure staff and not catering specialists with the necessary commercial expertise to develop the business. In 2009/10 it recorded a loss of £37,259.”

In the last financial year the cafe’s gross expenditure totalled £122,781 with sales of only £85,522.

Mr Wallis said the restaurant’s excellent position meant it had the potential to make money.

The cafe’s current staff would be “absorbed” into other areas of Shropshire Council’s leisure services.

He said it was intended that the restaurant would be open to the public seven days a week with the option to trade until 9pm in the summer.

“Our current thinking is for the operation to offer a delicious range of freshly prepared hot and cold food, lights snacks, pastries, cakes and hot and cold drinks.”