Councillor fears Shropshire leisure sites may be forced to close if cuts continue

Councillor Heather Kidd said that a decision to remove education funding from such services could prove to be a death knell for them.

Councillor Kidd, of Chirbury and Worthen, said schools had previously helped run buildings like SpArC in Bishop's Castle and Church Stretton Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre, which meant that schools had good sports facilities and the community could also use them for recreation and exercise on prescription.

But she said that unless something was done to deal with the current funding crisis the public would be faced with the closure of several centres in the next couple of years.

"The public are seriously concerned about the effect on fitness, health and the loss of one of the few places providing entertainment, which is not a pub."

Charlotte Barnes, Shropshire Councillor for Bishop's Castle, said such centres and pools were vital for the surrounding primary schools to use for swimming lessons.

"It is time Shropshire Council began to look at things on an area-wide basis and did some joined-up thinking," she said.

Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council's deputy leader, and cabinet member responsible for leisure, said the education funding reductions referred to were specific to community use of leisure facilities on school sites.

He said: "This is an issue that affects joint-use leisure centres throughout Shropshire and not only facilities operating swimming pools.

"The unprecedented level of savings that the council have had to identify led to a 30 per cent reduction in the controllable budget allocated to leisure services, in line with reductions in other service areas," added Mr Charmley.

"Within this extremely challenging environment, Shropshire Council has been in discussions with their operators and directly with schools as to how the reductions in funding can be addressed with the aim of maintaining community use leisure provision at all facilities."