LEISURE centre campaigners have hit out after finding out Dudley Council paid nearly £64,000 to consultants as plans were being mooted to close facilities or shake up sports provision.

Fitness fans fighting to save Dudley and Halesowen Leisure Centres and Stourbridge’s Crystal Leisure Centre were aghast when they discovered the council shelled out £25,000 in November 2015 to Neil Allen Associates to look at the provision of facilities and ascertain options for the future management of facilities - and a further £38,950 to Ameo Professional Services Ltd to determine the possibility of delivering a cost neutral service.

A total of £10,000 was also paid out between 2010 and 2013 to FMG Consulting focussing on cutting operational costs and management options for leisure centres.

Campaigner Tracy Wood said: "In respect of the options appraisal document written by consultants (Ameo), I’m guessing no one even considered asking the council officers employed by Dudley Council to look at putting this together. I know there are some top quality staff who work for the council who could have pulled something together with a lot less bias then the one produced.

"Consultants employed to write options appraisals are sometimes given an idea of what the most desired outcome is and perhaps this is the reason?

"So far Dudley has spent £63,950 on two reports. Is this good value for money? My feeling is that it certainly isn’t."

The council also commissioned Rider Levett Bucknall to carry out condition surveys last year for the three leisure centres; the one for Halesowen Leisure Centre was dated July 2016 and cost £1,653 and the reports for Dudley and the Crystal Leisure Centres, dated November 2016, cost £1,665 and £2,890 respectively.

Councillor Khurshid Ahmed, Dudley's cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, defended the spending on consultancy fees - saying: “Our plans are about creating a long-term sustainable future for the leisure centres and investing in the groundwork is essential to making sure we get things right. With this in mind it is important we bring in experts to take stock of the current leisure centres.

"The leisure centres need around £2millon in repairs but small patchwork investments will only create short-term fixes. We simply cannot allow tax payers across the borough to continue propping up these leisure centres at a cost of £1.9million year and we have to look at alternative ways of providing first-class leisure facilities.”

Meanwhile - campaigners have gathered more than 3,000 names on petitions calling for three leisure centres to remain open.

Anyone still wishing to sign can do so until February 26 - either online or at Lemon Squeezy wool shop, Crown Butchers or Quality Butchers in Market Street, Stourbridge.