THE council is set to cut opening hours at its struggling leisure centres in a bid to save money on its energy bills.

Worcester City Council is planning to slash opening times at Nunnery Wood Sports Complex as well as close Perdiswell Leisure Centre earlier as a way of cutting costs.

The opening times at St John's Sports Centre would remain the same.

Prices at the three leisure centres are also set to rise by an average of almost nine per cent to boost funds.

Freedom Leisure has warned that its bills are set to soar by £585,000 and the council is set to hand it £315,000 to help protect the leisure centres across the next 12 months.

The city council’s communities committee will also discuss plans to set aside up to £550,000 to pay for energy-saving measures at a meeting on January 25.

READ MORE: Taxpayer bailout for Worcester leisure centres in energy crisis

Opening hours at Nunnery Wood Sports Centre would be cut to 3pm to 10pm between Monday and Thursday, 3pm to 9pm on Fridays and 8am to 1pm on weekends.

Perdiswell Leisure Centre would close an hour earlier on weekdays from 6am to 9pm.

A review of the council’s contract with Freedom Leisure found that while demand for swimming lessons in Worcester has soared, health and fitness, which is where most of the money is made, has failed to recover and remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

The review suggested looking at reducing opening times at Perdiswell Leisure Centre and Nunnery Wood Sports Centre – and even closing St John’s Sports Centre completely – as a way of saving money.

READ MORE: Bosses fear Worcester's leisure centres and swimming pools could close

However, council bosses decided against closing the centre and instead pushed reduced hours which would save around £40,000 a year.

In September last year, councillors agreed to hand £255,000 to Freedom Leisure to cover some of its energy bills as costs continued to soar and ahead of the leisure centre provider negotiating new gas and electric contracts before the end of the year.

Around the same time, the council also rejected a call by Freedom Leisure for an in-year fees increase but agreed to look at upping fees and charges this year to try and cover some of the cost of rising bills.

READ MORE: Calls for ‘serious review’ over taxpayer bailout for Worcester's struggling leisure centres

Freedom Leisure said it has already lowered pool temperatures, turned off air conditioning for large parts of the day, cut classes with low turnout and upgraded lighting and insulation in a bid to save money and cut the cost of its bills.

Throughout last year, the leisure centre provider has also looked into other ways it can continue to cut energy consumption – including improvements to lighting, heat and pool pumps, air handling units and installing solar panels – which, if approved by the council, would cost at least £550,000 to install.

The money will be put aside to pay for the energy-efficient improvements, which would be expected to save around £147,000 a year, but would require further talks and detailed plans – as well as further backing from councillors – before the funds can be spent.

  • This article was corrected on January 19 to state that the opening times at St John's Sports Centre will not change as part of the council's proposals.