Castle Point's leisure facilities should be flogged-off for a £1, a councillor has said.

Furious Tory Bill Sharp hit out after Castle Point Council's leisure privatisation plans had failed. He made the claim at a council improvement committee meeting.

Mr Sharp said: "It's a loss-making activity for us. It's cost us an awful lot of money. We as an authority can't run businesses and we shouldn't carry on trying.

"We should just give all of our facilities away for £1 and just have one person in there to check on the prices they are charging."

Three companies were invited to consider taking on the facilities but none returned bids.

The committee was told last night this was because of "the balance of risk" between the firms and the council over repairs and maintenance at the centres.

There was also concern over the amount of capital investment needed.

Published Thursday September 2, 2004

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