External management partner to be considered for Shrewsbury Swimming and Fitness Centre
Shropshire Council is proposing to work with a new external partner to manage Quarry Swimming and Fitness Centre in Shrewsbury.
If approved, the centre will sit alongside four other leisure centres across the county in Market Drayton, Oswestry, Whitchurch and Shrewsbury that will be managed by a new leisure partner in the future.
The council say the proposal will protect vital local services while offering better value-for-money for local tax payers.
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said:
“The Quarry Swimming and Fitness Centre is an important and fantastic facility which has enormous potential. This approach will support the ongoing delivery of excellent services for the people of Shrewsbury and beyond, while ensuring that it will continue to be available for use by local people, despite other budget pressures.”
The council will shortly begin the process to advertise the facilities on the open market and, new running arrangements could be in place by as early as June 2012.
The recommendation to work with a new operator to manage the four leisure centres was approved by the council’s Cabinet on 16 March 2011. The school governors at Bridgnorth Endowed School are currently considering whether Bridgnorth
Leisure Centre should also form part of these new arrangements.
These changes follow an objective, external review of how the council’s leisure services could be redesigned to provide better value-for-money and an improved experience for the local people who use them.
The proposal will be considered by Shropshire Council’s Cabinet on 3 August 2011.
