WEST Somerset College is set to safeguard and improve the district’s only major sports centre as Somerset County Council prepares to cut its ties with current operator 1610.
County councillors are being asked not to renew their contract with 1610 when it expires in March as the cash-strapped council seeks to cut spending.
The contract covers the public use of sports facilities at eight sites including the college, and the county warned this week that the move could mean that use would cease.
But Peter Elliott, chief executive officer of Bridgwater College Trust – which the college is part of – told the Free Press that not only would the West Somerset Sports and Leisure Centre continue to be available to the community but facilities would be improved.
The county’s policies and place scrutiny committee will be told when it meets on Tuesday (November 13) that the ten-year contract with 1610 to provide community leisure facilities at the eight sites expires at the end of March, and the council has no statutory responsibility to provide leisure services.
“In light of the financial pressures facing the authority, the recommendation is that the county council should stop commissioning leisure services and transfer the facilities to the schools,” said a council spokesman.
“Schools and their pupils will be able to continue to use the facilities, but it is likely that some schools may not be able to afford to provide the same community offer as currently available through 1610.”
The move would save the council an annual management fee of around £900,000 plus the cost of maintaining and repairing facilities.
Read the full report in today’s Free Press.