In an overhaul of Birmingham’s leisure facilities, nine centres are being closed down, but six new pools and leisure centres are being developed within the next two years.

The council’s leisure services are currently running at £6.8m over budget and council leader, Sir Albert Bore, says that a radical approach is needed. “This is about the transformation of leisure services for the next 20 years,” he says. “There is a £36m investment in new leisure centres and swimming pools across the city. Together with a £5.5m investment in the remaining centres, we aim to make leisure service more sustainable.”

The nine ageing centres earmarked to close are: Newtown Pool, Colmers Leisure Centre, Court Road, Erdington Leisure Centre, Moseley Road Swimming Pool, Northfield Pool, Shard End leisure centre, Stechford Cascades and Tivertoon Pool in Selly Oak.

Most of these will be replaced by new centres on the same sites and all of them, along with four more existing centres, will be handed over to private operators to run.

Only six centres will remain under direct council control and will be underpinned with NHS funding and rebranded as health and wellbeing centres, using fitness to tackle the city’s obesity problem.