A number of Council-run leisure centres in Wiltshire are to be handed over to the public, but £117m will be spent on upgrading existing facilities or building replacement centres.

Wiltshire Council announced that the Corsham, Downton, Pewsbury, Tisbury, Westbury and Wootton Bassett leisure centres would be transferred, as would Westbury and Bradford-on-Avon swimming pools.

The reason for the transfers is that currently, the council would need to spend £93m to maintain the existing 23 facilities in the next 15 years. This would not include any improvements or new facilities, and in the present financial climate is not "affordable or sustainable".

However, there are plans to build a new centre at Melksham (which will boast a four-lane 25m swimming pool, a learner pool, a fitness suite, a sports hall and multi-activity rooms), Trowbridge (an eight-lane, 25m swimming pool, a learner pool with diving facilities, a leisure pool with a flume, a large sports hall, a fitness suite, multi-activity rooms, squash courts and a climbing wall) and Warminster (which will have the same facilities as Melksham).

Refurbishments will also be a carried out at Amesbury/Durrington, Devizes, Chippenham, Malmesbury, Marlborough, Salisbury and Tidworth.

The proposed plan will take a phased approach starting in 2011- 2015, with completion in 2025.