CHICHESTER District Council is considering bringing in an outside company to run its leisure centres, including at Midhurst.

The council says no decision has been made, but if a leisure management company is engaged, any surplus profit would be invested into “enhancing and improving” existing services.

Councillor for commercial services Gillian Keegan said: “We are incredibly proud of our leisure services and what they achieve. This review is being carried out to make sure that we can continue to deliver the same high quality services in the future.

“We regularly review all of our services to make sure that we are operating them in the most efficient way and that we are meeting the needs of our residents.

“This gives us the opportunity to look at new ways of doing things in order to continue to deliver the services that our residents expect.”

She added: “This is purely a review at this stage. No decision has been made.

“We will be talking to lots of people, including clubs and community groups to assess their needs.

“The key is for us to review our findings and decide if this is something that would be suitable for Chichester District or not.

“Many other councils across the country have adopted this approach.

“If this option is chosen we would continue to own the centres, but the management company would run the centres and associated services on our behalf.

“The service to our customers would continue as usual. We would also be responsible for holding the management company to account if they were not performing to the standards that we expect.”

The review will continue until early in the new year, when officers will report the results to both a cabinet and full council meeting.

If leisure services are outsourced, the contract would be awarded in the new year and would begin in April/May 2016.

Existing staff would be transferred to the new management company.