Leisure centre opening hours to be cut

Opening hours at some of the city’s struggling leisure centres will be cut in a bid to save money.

Worcester City Council will slash opening times at Nunnery Wood Sports Complex as well as close Perdiswell Leisure Centre earlier as a way of cutting costs.

The opening times at St John’s Sports Centre would remain the same.

Opening hours at Nunnery Wood Sports Centre would be cut to 3pm to 10pm between Monday and Thursday, 3pm to 9pm on Fridays and 8am to 1pm on weekends.

Perdiswell Leisure Centre would close an hour earlier on weekdays from 6am to 9pm.

The city council’s communities committee backed the cost-cutting measures, which will begin from April and are expected to save around £40,000 a year, at a meeting in the Guildhall on Wednesday (January 25).

Freedom Leisure said it had already lowered pool temperatures, turned off air conditioning for large parts of the day, cut classes with low turnout and upgraded lighting and insulation in a bid to save money and cut the cost of its bills.

Prices at the three leisure centres are also set to rise by an average of almost nine per cent to boost funds.

The communities committee also discussed other support for the city’s struggling leisure including paying £550,000 for energy-efficiency work, including solar panels, as well as handing over £315,000 to help Freedom Leisure, which runs Perdiswell, Nunnery Wood and the St John’s leisure centres on behalf of the council, pay its energy bills in the next 12 months.

Councillors supported bailing out Freedom Leisure but a final decision has still not been made as the plans need to be discussed by other committees before the final say is left with full council when it meets at the end of February to sign off on its budget for the next year.

A review of the council’s contract with Freedom Leisure suggested looking at reducing opening times at Perdiswell Leisure Centre and Nunnery Wood Sports Centre – and even closing St John’s Sports Centre completely – as a way of saving money.

However, council bosses decided against closing the centre and instead pushed ahead with reducing opening hours to make the savings.