THE budget for maintenance costs at leisure centres in Powys will only be spent on those facilities that come within the council’s contract with Freedom Leisure.

At a joint meeting of all of three Powys County Council’s scrutiny committees on Wednesday, June 17, councillors received an update report on the Leisure Services review

This is ahead of the report going to the Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet meeting for a decision on July 14.

The report gives an updated timeline for reviewing leisure services and options for investment into existing leisure facilities across Powys.

The preferred option for the cabinet member in charge of leisure centres, Cllr Raiff Devlin, is to pump in £6 million to fund the cost of maintaining leisure centres in Powys up to the new contract handover on July 1, 2030.

Cllr Chloe Masefield (Liberal Democrat – Crickhowell, Cwmdu and Tretower) said: “I was very excited to see the paper I think it’s really positive to see priority given to leisure facilities and the importance they have towards health and wellbeing for our communities across Powys.”

Cllr Masefield wanted to clarify what facilities are covered under the review.

Cllr Masefield said: “In my ward we have leisure provision provided by the (Crickhowell High) school and whether that’s included in this process?”

She also asked on behalf of other leisure facilities provided by community groups such as the swimming pool in Hay-on-Wye.

Cabinet member for customers, digital and community services, Cllr Devlin (Liberal Democrat – Talybont-on-Usk) said that the review had looked at provision across the 13 “localities” of Powys and the future engagement with residents for later this year would also be county wide.

Cllr Devlin said: “It will extend all beyond the facilities currently included in the Freedom Leisure contract and include the other types of provision that exist in Powys.

“Things have changed massively since 2015 and we need to have an open approach to provision moving forward.”

2015 is when the 15-year contract between the council and Freedom Leisure started.

Cllr Devlin said that he could not provide any commitments on what would happen to leisure facilities in “any future contract” but stressed that the review would encompass all localities and facilities.

“This is to ensure we have the most equitable type of provision that is designed around the needs of communities moving forward.”

Cllr Masefield asked – whether the maintenance budgets up to 2030 would cover all facilities or “just those” in the leisure portfolio?

Cllr Devlin said: “This capital programmes is just for the leisure service and so it would not include facilities that are outside the contract such as the one you mentioned in Crickhowell.”

Cllr Devlin explained that any capital costs such as for maintenance at the Crickhowell community sports facility would need to come from the council’s education department.

Crickhowell High School have been managing the community sports facilities since 2016.

They have said that the school is losing £38,000 annually by operating it.

Earlier this year it was announced that the school could not continue to operate the facility out of hours beyond March 31.

They are exploring other options of how to run the facility.

A Powys council spokeswoman said: “The council, Crickhowell High School and members of the community are currently having very positive discussions about future management arrangements for the community leisure provision.

“However, no decisions have yet been made.”