Councils which get trusts or outside companies to run leisure centres can make big savings, auditors have said.

Despite these new methods of operation, the auditors' report said the "vast majority" of leisure services in Wales were still run by councils themselves.

Continued budget pressures and "slow progress" in finding other ways of running such services put their long-term future at risk, it warned.

A report by The Welsh Audit Office (attached below) states:

"The scale of cost reduction required means that councils will have to look beyond immediate short-term savings and think more radically about how to reduce costs, and how to sustain this in the longer term whilst still maintaining or improving services. Cutting spending requires councils to take a strategic overview to avoid an erosion of service quality in priority areas.

We found that although public sector ownership and management of leisure provision is starting to change with the transfer of some services and assets to other models of operation such as private sector trusts, strategic decisions on whether to transfer or continue with in-house provision of leisure services have not always been based on robust information or a consideration of all of the options open to councils. Whilst there has been an increase in the number of councils transferring their major leisure facilities to other models of delivery, the vast majority of leisure provision remains in council ownership. Strategies for leisure services do not always provide the clear direction needed to safeguard services at a time of reducing public expenditure."