Leisure and civic centres in Bury could be facing the axe, as the town council looks to make major cuts.
Ramsbottom Pool and Fitness Centre and Castle Leisure Centre in Bury are both within the scope of a new spending review, which also include the Longfield Suite in Prestwich and Ramsbottom Civic Hall.
Radcliffe Leisure Centre is also under threat of closure, but arrangements for new leisure facilities in the town are expected to feature in regeneration plans for the area.
The review is set to take place after the new year and any changes would come into effect later in 2020.
But cabinet member for finance and housing, Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, said that it is too early at this stage to say whether there would be any closures.
He said: “No decisions have been made about closures. I think it would be wrong to say there are plans for any closures.
"These are not decisions we can rush out or sneak in.
“These are facilities people use.”
However, Cllr O’Brien said there are savings options on the table which do not involve the closure of leisure facilities and civic centres.
This includes handing over responsibility for the services to external organisations or setting up an “arms-length” company to manage the facilities.
He added: “There many ways we can use these services. We have seen different operating models in other areas where they can be run as council-owned companies.
“There is a review. It would be wrong to speculate at this point but once that review is done, that will be brought forward for scrutiny.”
The review will be conducted by the new director of operations who is due to start work at the town hall in January.
The local authority will look at how much capital funding it will need to invest to keep the leisure centres and civic suites up to standard.
The council will also conduct a viability business case to identify how much money from the annual budget would be needed to keep these services up and running.
The sports and leisure section of the budget is forecast to overspend by more than half a million pounds this year.
Delays to the review of leisure services have been blamed for the failure to meet historic savings targets which were first set in 2016.
Cllr O’Brien told a scrutiny committee last week that the delay arose from issues with capacity.
He said: “They have been in the saving targets for many years now. It’s something that quite honestly capacity has not allowed us to review properly.
“We didn’t want to bring forward plans that weren’t reviewed properly.”
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr O’Brien also explained that the temporary swimming pool in Radcliffe is also in the scope of the review, but new facilities are anticipated as part of the long-awaited regeneration of the area which includes a new secondary school.
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