COUNCILLORS have been unable to give any reassurance over the future of Bridport Leisure Centre, but have promised to consider funding as part of the wider budget setting process.

West Dorset District Council’s executive committee considered a recommendation from the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee, which has carried out a review on the future funding of the centre.

The overview and scrutiny proposal was for the council to enter into a 10-year agreement with the Bridport and West Dorset Sports Trust from April next year, with a review period after four years.

It also proposed offering the trust a management fee of £127,377 for the first four years and then reducing it incrementally to £100,000 in the final year of the agreement.

However, the district council’s enabling portfolio holder Mary Penfold said that the proposals would need to be considered as part of the authority’s forthcoming budget setting process for the 2017/18 financial year.

Cllr John Russell said: “We hope we have got enough left to match the ongoing support of Bridport Leisure Centre but it’s going to be difficult.”

Council leader Anthony Alford said the authority was currently faced with having to reduce its budget by 25 per cent over the next two years.

He said: “To achieve that some very difficult decisions are going to have to be made. We need to put the subject of the Bridport Leisure Centre into the pot with all our other considerations.”

Cllr Alford said he recognised that the Bridport and West Dorset Sports Trust would appreciate a definitive response as soon as possible and he added that the council would let it know as early as it can. Cllr Alford was then asked by Bridport member David Rickard if the funding for the leisure centre was now “in jeopardy”.

He replied: “We need to look at all our services and consider what can be afforded in the light of savings that need to be made. We can’t give any guarantees.”