Thirteen leisure centres across the county have been threatened with closure in 2015 unless community trusts can be formed to run them.

Wiltshire Council has pointed to Calne Leisure Centre as an example of how this can be done after a group of volunteers resurrected it in 2008.

The chairman of the board of trustees, Tony Trotman, said North Wiltshire District Council had threatened to close the centre due to the high cost of maintaining the old building.

He said: “We were told the pool would be filled in with sand and the windows would be boarded up.

“Initially everybody was so appalled at the closure there was a raft of angry people willing to get together and help out.

“We had several public meetings and a group of people came forward to put a business plan together.”

Town and Wiltshire councillor Mr Trotman advised community leaders in towns with threatened centres to assemble a working group.

He said: “It is important to form a board of trustees.

“Try to find people with skills in finance, business, maintenance, fundraising, management, IT and health and safety.

“These volunteers will work with committees to run the centre. We leave the day-to-day running to the staff but there is constant communication between them and us.”

Mr Trotman said keeping on top of the finances was vital.

He said: “It costs us £40,000 a month to run the centre.

“Utility costs are our major outgoing and we have to walk the tightrope of satisfying customers and keeping it a viable business.

“We still rely on grant funding from Wiltshire Council and Calne Town Council have been very good to us. To keep the centres in other towns running it may be that some of the costs will have to be met by the town council.”

To get the leisure centre in Calne up and running, a host of volunteer help was used.

Mr Trotman said: “We had 60 businesses come to offer us their skills as roofers, builders, plasterers, carpet specialists and painters.

“It was tremendous and saved us a huge amount of money. We discovered that over the years the maintenance had been very poor.

“Another source of funding may be sponsorship from local firms.”

Despite the centre’s resurrection, Mr Trotman said it still relied on funding from the unitary authority.

He said: “It has been a fantastic job to do and we are now successful.

“But we’re going to have to go to Wiltshire Council and find out where we fit in the new scheme.”

Mr Trotman said the burden of raising £40,000 a month was manageable with a good team.

He said: “It is a challenge and a responsibility.

“But it isn’t hard work as long as you can spread the load across a good board of trustees.”

He added that they annually receive £70,000 grant funding from Wiltshire Council, which equates to around £35 per member, compared to £125 per member which council-run facilities receive.

Calne Town Council gave the centre £25,000 in each of the first two years and this year it received £20,000.

Mr Trotman said there hadn’t yet been discussions with the town council about further funding for next year.