Organisations interested in running Cornwall Council-owned leisure centres are to be invited to submit their formal proposals to the authority — with the potential for Launceston’s leisure centre to be devolved locally.

A competitive procurement exercise will take place from January 2016.

Tempus Leisure currently manages leisure services in Cornwall on behalf of Cornwall Council. The leisure contract ends on March 31 2017.

The council has previously said its ambition for leisure provision in Cornwall is that there is a ‘sustainable network of leisure facilities and activities available to residents and visitors across Cornwall that contributes to local health, wellbeing and the economy of Cornwall, at no cost to the council’.

The council has recognised that four of the facilities — Par Running Track, Newquay Sports Centre, Falmouth Pavilion and the Phoenix Leisure Centre, Launceston — could be considered for devolution as they are either leasehold properties (Newquay and Phoenix Leisure Centres) or are outside the traditional ‘wet and dry’ (pools and gym facilities) set up.

Liberal Democrat Cornwall Councillor for Launceston North and North Petherwin Adam Paynter, who is deputy leader and portfolio holder for resources, told the Post somebody had expressed an interest in taking on the running of Phoenix Leisure Centre, but added: “I think people came forward about taking on Launceston, mainly thinking if no one else would, they would look at it.”

He added he felt Launceston was the ‘weakest’ for any potential devolution: “It makes sense for the school to take [Newquay Sports Centre] on; Falmouth, it’s fairly obvious it will go with the town council — they are keen to take it on; Par Running Track, that’s the athletic club’s really and local clubs in Par are looking to take that on. Launceston is more difficult to devolve locally.”

These four facilities will be included in the main tender process, with potential devolution solutions pursued at the same time.

The council said any devolution options would take effect at the end of the current Tempus Leisure contract in April 2017.

Cllr Paynter added: “The last thing we want to do is close any. My thing is what can we do to make sure they are kept open and running for the people of Cornwall but saving some money at the same time.

“Obviously the issue is the cost. The cost of taking on a leisure centre is massive. That’s the difficulty, it is the sustainability of it.”

During the soft market test process carried out in August and September this year, a number of organisations expressed interest in the council’s leisure portfolio, including trusts, charities, social enterprises and not for profit organisations — all of which the council said are experienced leisure operators.

Based on feedback from the market, the cabinet concluded that, rather than transferring individual centres to different operators or organisations, a whole network approach offered the best opportunity to achieve the council’s ambition to provide a sustainable leisure network, as it would enable an operator to use income from the most highly used centres to subsidise those which are less well used.

Cllr Paynter said the soft market testing had been ‘positive’: “We were quite pleasantly surprised that national operators are quite keen on coming to Cornwall.

“They saw it as a good opportunity and are very much in the business of keeping leisure centres open and increasing the use.”

He added that Tempus Leisure, which currently manages leisure services on behalf of the council, is ‘quite keen’ to continue to run these services: “Tempus currently run them and know them inside out. They think it’s doable, though they may need some capital investment.”

He added part of last week’s cabinet meeting was about the potential to make some capital money available for somebody coming in ‘on commercial terms’.

The council said members agreed in principle to offering a loan facility on commercial terms to the successful bidder(s) to enable them to address the key backlog maintenance issues. However, it said at this early stage in the process it is not known whether indeed such a facility will be necessary.

Cllr Paynter said the procurement process would probably take ‘at least six months’.

The tenders would then be evaluated and the council would make the tender award by the end of 2016.

He added all tender documents will be available online, and that anyone from Launceston could put in a bid.

Cornwall Council currently provides a subsidy of £5.1-million for the operation of leisure centres in Cornwall. It said given the scale of the financial challenge facing the council, this level of subsidy is not sustainable beyond 2017/2018.