THE sale of leisure facilities by Denbighshire County Council was slammed as ”botched and fundamentally flawed” by Unison yesterday.

A study into the controversial sale was commissioned by the public-sector union and carried out by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE).

It raises serious issues about conflicts of interest, potential beneficiaries and possible breaches of procurement law.

The analysis also criticises the lack of transparency in the local authority’s consultation and competitive tender processes.

At a behind-closed-doors meeting in March, councillors backed selling the council’s eight leisure centres and other venues to a private equity investor by 20 votes to 17.

But that deal collapsed at the end of April. 

Unison is sending the report to every councillor and calling on them to now back the union’s call to keep control of the area’s leisure facilities. 

The union says public money spent on leisure in Denbighshire should go on just that, not to companies looking to extract profit from the local community. 

Unison Cymru/Wales regional organiser Tony Jones said: “This report destroys the credibility of the decision-making process around the sale of Denbighshire’s leisure facilities.

“It will be uncomfortable reading for some. But residents will question whether decisions were being made in their best interests and who was going to benefit most from the sale. 

“The council spent huge sums of public money refurbishing these leisure facilities but then failed to explore all the options before deciding to privatise them. 

“Now the original sale has collapsed, councillors should ensure they have a controlling interest in leisure facilities.

”Every penny spent on leisure in Denbighshire should be for the benefit of local people, not handed to company shareholders looking to make a quick buck.”

Denbighshire County Council said that it was not approached by Unison or APSE and ”would have been able to address a number of the issues that are raised within the report upon which the council has received its own independent, external professional advice.”