Swindon Borough Council is looking to reset its relationship with the operator of its six leisure centres, according to the councillor in charge.

Councillor Marina Strinkovsky, the council’s cabinet member for placemaking and planning told her fellow cabinet members that both the council and GLL, which runs six leisure centres here under the trading name of Better, are looking for a more productive long-term relationship.

As well as asking the cabinet to endorse a policy where the break clause in the contract between the two organisations is dropped, meaning GLL will continue to run the leisure centres until late 2039, she said it would mean the leisure operator would make significant investments into improving the centres.

Cllr Strinkovsky's report also listed the ‘social value’ added to running the centres by GLL.

Asking members to  approve the dropping of the  break clause, and also allocating the remainder of a £2m leisure fund it approved last year to two of the centres - with £115,000 going to work on the Health Hydro and £1.3m for work on the Link Centre - Cllr Strinkovsky said: ”Quite frankly, we can’t afford to take back the centres into our control if GLL left the contract – they were, collectively, making a loss every year.”

Her colleague Councillor Jim Grant who had responsibility for the leisure centres last year added: “The difficult decision to allocate £2m to a leisure fund has cemented that relationship with GLL. And now it is GLL that will be investing in the borough’s leisure centres going forward.”

The leisure company has conducted surveys of the five centres excluding the Health Hydro which is closed for a major refurbishment, and identified £16m worth of maintenance and improvements to be made over the next 15 years until 2019.

The proposal to drop the break clause and spend the £ 1.4m was unanimously approved.

Cllr Strinkovsky said she would like GLL’s social value to the borough to be better understood.

An annexe to her report listed initiatives such as residents’ cards, which are free, offering 10 per cent discounts across all the centres, free membership for children and young people in the council’s care, and care leavers up to the age of 25; subsidised memberships for vulnerable people, and work is going on to allow GLL to offer free swimming lessons to primary school children who can not already swim.

There are programmes for older people and GLL is a partner with the NHS Falls clinic to help elderly people improve their strength and balance.

There are also 200 people enrolled on a scheme where they have been prescribed exercise at Swindon leisure centres by their GP.