Battle lines drawn again in outdoor centre fight

Worcestershire County Council is considering a number of options for the future of the West Malvern centre, including selling it off and entering a commercial partnership to run it.

But local members plan to replay protests in 2007, when the centre was threatened with closure. On that occasion, the council backed down and kept it open.

This week, the council held what it described as an open meeting about the centre’s future, but local members say they were not told. Councillor Penelope Morgan said: “I only heard about it because someone from the district council told me.” She went to the meeting on Wednesday and said five options were presented.

She said: “The first is to let things remain as they are; the second is to form a local trust or link up with an existing trust; the third is a commercial partnership or franchise; the fourth is to sell it as a going concern; and the fifth is to run it as a shared service with another local authority.

“I don’t think the first option will happen, the fifth is unlikely because other local authorities are cutting their costs as well, the second I could live with.

“It’s really the third and fourth that worry me, because making it commercial would be the death knell of the education side at the centre.” Coun Clive Smith said: “It’s absolutely outrageous that they called this meeting behind our backs. There were no Malvern councillors invited and if Coun Morgan hadn’t found out, we’d still be completely in the dark.”

A council statement said that “interested parties, businesses, social enterprises, trusts, and community organisations” were invited to explore the options. Coun Jane Potter said: “The October meeting will be presented with the options available.”

When asked why the Malvern councillors were not invited, spokesman Kirsty Crawley said: “The focus of the meeting was to do some soft market testing to identify further opportunities in the outdoor education market.”