Sport centre's shock as council announces closure

Teme Leisure said Shropshire Council published a press release about the potential closure of a site without collaborating with them

A not-for-profit company that runs leisure centres in Shropshire said the local authority issued news that one of its sites could close, without communicating with them.

Teme Leisure runs Teme Ludlow and Cleobury Mortimer Sports Centre, working in partnership with Shropshire Council.

On Thursday, the Lib Dem-run authority published a press release which said Teme Leisure wanted to stop running the Cleobury site, due to the removal of a grant by the previous administration.

Teme Leisure said it had put forward proposals to enable the site to remain open but the council had rejected these suggestions and gone ahead with its press release without any discussion.

"Unfortunately, it [the grant] was cut from the budget by the last administration and our budget is so tight that we can't find the extra money," said Heather Kidd, leader of the council.

"They came up with some unacceptable plans and we are where we are.

"It seems like peanuts but it's not, everything we need to save as much as possible, we just can't find day-to-day spending."

She said Teme Leisure were aware of the news, but added: "Whether they told their staff about this is a different thing."

The Teme Cleobury site comprises of a fitness suite, badminton courts, a sports hall and cricket nets among other facilities.

The leisure firm said a grant of £23,500 had been previously been available, from the council, "to assist with the operating deficit".

It said it had been advised the Cleobury grant would cease from 1 April.

Shropshire Council said the decision would mean the centre would close to the public on 3 December if no other options were found.

It added that negotiations had ended with no progress, and use of the site for educational purposes would continue.

Shropshire Council said it wanted to explore other options for the future

"We would like to apologise to our customers, stakeholders and more importantly our staff that received this information and for any stress this may have caused," Teme said in a statement.

"Teme Leisure are committed to continue to seek a solution for the continued opening of the Cleobury Sports Centre, however without the external funding from Shropshire Council sadly the site may be forced to close later this year."

It added that Teme Leisure in Ludlow was not affected and would continue to operate as normal.

Kidd added: "I know that members of my cabinet are going to be talking to Cleobury Town Council to see if we can find a way through to keep it open for them."

"It may well be that it would only be closed for six months, but we don't want it closed for six months either."

She said money used to fund other leisure centre projects, like in Shrewsbury and Whitchurch, was different spending.