D-Day looms for Arun's 'costly' leisure trust

The two centres and most of Arun's other leisure facilities, including tennis courts and bowling greens, are set to be transferred to a charitable trust if councillors approve the deal at the full meeting of the district council.

The Gazette understands that the trust would take over running of the services from April 1, exactly one year after the original hand-over was scheduled, and six months after a second launch date was cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice. One councillor estimated it would cost Arun 1,000 for every day of delay, and so far the council has had to plough two large sums of cash into "start-up" costs for the trust.

Arun's controlling Conservative group first floated the idea of disposing of the leisure facilities as a money-saving exercise, worth 300,000 a year to the council. That sum has now been whittled down and council leader Norman Dingemans estimates the total would be around 750,000 over six years.

Other benefits from the trust, Inspire Leisure, taking the reins would include a better service for residents, as the organisation would be able to respond to changes in the market, such as private competition, more quickly, added Mr Dingemans, who also predicted more people would use the facilities.

He believed that the main stumbling block which prevented the transfer in October, the trust's business plan, had now been ironed out.

At a seminar on Monday night, councillors will be able to question the shadow trustees about the deal, 48 hours before they take the crucial vote, behind closed doors.

Leading Labour councillor Mike Northeast criticised the plan to hold the discussions in secret. "The public who pay the money for these services have a right to know what the background is to this decision, and why it is taken, if it goes ahead.

"The whole exercise has costs hundreds of thousands of pounds so far and has also caused a great deal of uncertainty for the staff, who were given their P45s ready for the transfer at the beginning of October, and then had to hand them back when it didn't go ahead.

"They still don't know whether they are going to be employed by the council or the trust."

Mr Northeast also criticised the switching of 250,000 of regeneration cash into the trust's set-up costs, but Mr Dingemans said money could still be found if it was needed.