The Community Services Scrutiny and Performance Panel meets at The Council House, Walsall this evening at 6pm.

On the agenda is a report (which arrived late) entitled Leisure Centre Strategy. Members of the Panel (and I’m one of them) are being asked to “indicate what their views are regarding the various options outlined within the report” oh, and yes, we’re being asked to make a recommendation to the 14th April Cabinet meeting.

You could be forgiven for thinking that we were going to have a far-reaching, inclusive debate about the future for Leisure in Walsall. I doubt it! As I’ve already said, the report was late, and the first paragragh admits that the Cabinet has sat on the problem since as early as September 2007!

The second paragraph gets down to the Tory nitty gritty, it’s all about the Council’s need to reduce “revenue spend” over the next three years by up to £50m.

Forgive me for being cynical, but I hardly think that tonight’s meeting will have the gravitas of a well thought through consensus “Health and Well-being Policy” do you?

If the Tories really want to see a well thought out “Strategic Spread of facilities across the Borough” then why have they already closed a centre in Darlaston and plan to close Willenhall’s Leisure Centre this financial year, leaving the West of the Borough virtually devoid of any council leisure facilities.

The Tories strategy flies in the face of the council’s vision to improve the quality of people’s health overall and reduce the 8.4 years differential in life expectancy within the Borough between East and West.