Councillors have issued a rallying call to get community leaders to save their town’s ailing leisure centres before they are forced to close.

Wiltshire councillors gave the go-ahead on Tuesday to consult the county on their plans to close six leisure centres and transfer a further seven to community groups. The consultation will run until October 29 and residents will be able to share their views at the area board meetings.

Coun Stuart Wheeler, cabinet member for leisure, said: “This is not abandonment. It is going to be a long process but we will be giving everyone the support and help they need to run the facilities in their communities.

“We will be meeting with those interested in running specific facilities. That is why there will be four years for transfers to happen. There is no suggestion that we’ll just let people get out there and buy into things without knowing what they are doing.”

The centres the council wants to pass over to trusts include Corsham, Wootton Bassett and Pewsey. They will be closed in 2015 if groups do not save them.

The council has pointed to the Calne Leisure Centre and Cricklade Leisure Centre as examples of how community groups can successfully take over and run facilities.

Gary Walker, from Cricklade Leisure Centre, said: “Having run Cricklade for three and a half years we are anxious for this process to get underway because we are being held back as we don’t have the freedom to go out and raise the funds to pay for the facilities that the community wants. I hope we can have a rapid conclusion.”

However, Mark Barrett, bursar at Calne Leisure Centre, fears that the community transfers will mean that Calne will lose the funding support it currently receives from the council.

Mr Barrett said: “We might well be used as an example of how a transfer to the community works but we ask the council not to lose sight of the active support the leisure centre needs from it each year.”

Calne now attracts 20,000 people per month and its annual turnover is in excess of £500,000.