The people of Pewsey have been challenged to take over the running of its leisure centre or face losing it.

Wiltshire Council’s review of its leisure provison has earmarked Pewsey’s sports centre and swimming pool for closure by 2015 unless a community trust is set up to take it over.

The council wants to save £93 million on running and repair costs for 13 centres across the county to help pay for £117 million worth of investments on other centres.

The proposals will go out to public consultation on August 2, with a decision made in November.

Coun Stuart Wheeler, cabinet holder for leisure, sport and culture, cited the examples of Cricklade and Calne leisure centres now successfully run by local trusts after the former North Wiltshire District Council gave the towns the opportunity to take them over.

He said: “I am not closing the Pewsey Leisure Centre, far from it. I have made it clear that proposals going to the cabinet on July 27 are for the provision of leisure services in the whole of Wiltshire over the next 15 years.

“Part of the proposal is that smaller sites like the one at Pewsey would be put in good order and transferred to a community trust to run for the benefit of the people of Pewsey.

“We have allowed four or five years for this to happen and we will be going out to consultation soon.”

Asked what would happen to the Pewsey centre if no community trust was forthcoming to run it, he said: “We will have to deal with that when we get to it but that is four or five years away.”

Pewsey councillor Jerry Kunkler, Wiltshire Council’s portfolio holder for leisure, helped save the centre in Wilcot Road four years ago when it faced closure under an earlier round of cuts.

However, he is supporting the latest proposal.

He said: “We intend to hand the leisure centres over to the communities in good order and I believe this is something that will benefit people.

“It would be run by Pewsey people for the benefit of Pewsey people and I understand that for the first few years at least Wiltshire will put about £40,000 a year towards running costs.”

Parish councillor Peeps Nicol, who was among concerned villagers who gathered at the leisure centre as news emerged of the threat to it, said: “This is a great asset to the village and we must not lose it.”

Terry Kemp, a director of Pewsey Area Community Trust, said: “We are looking at collaborating with other local organisations to see what needs to be done locally to save this centre.”

Amber Potter, 12, a member of Pewsey Youth Council, said that if the centre closed it could mean the closure of the Shak youth club which is part of it. “There would be nowhere for the youth of Pewsey to go,”