FIVE of Rossendale's leisure facilities are to close in a bid to make savings of almost £400,000 in 12 months.

The facilities are the Astoria ballroom and the Rossendale Museum, Whitaker Park in Rawtenstall, Whitworth Swimming Pool, the A, B and D Centre public hall in Bacup and Haslingden Public Hall.

The decision was made at Rossendale Council's corporate policy meeting last night, the first attended by the council's new interim chief executive James Gravenor.

Consultation with trade unions has already begun and meetings will be held with the 24 members of staff plus casual bar staff.

But members of last night's committee stressed that every effort would be made to avoid compulsory redundancies and to redeploy staff.

Consultation will also be carried out with users on how their activities could be relocated to other buildings.

The closures have been brought about by the need to restore council balances which have been in decline for more than two years, falling by £750,000.

And it they will help finance the corporate recovery plan required by the recent Audit Commission report which branded the council the worst in the country.

The recovery plan will lead to extra costs, to include improving housing benefits, training for members and officers, improvements in health and safety and communications, and this will have to be financed by reducing expenditure elsewhere.

The criteria used to decide which should close included the level of use, the cost of the facility to the council tax payer, the structural condition and life expectancy of the facility, facilities and possible adaptation for use by people with disabilities and the impact on the community of the loss of a facility.

It has been estimated that £379,000 could be saved in 2003-2004 and if the facilities closed by October 1 this year there would be an extra saving of £157,000.

Coun Graham Pearson, who chaired the meeting, said: "This is not something that is easy to come to terms with.

"But nevertheless it is something we have to do if we are to go forward as an authority and be part of the recovery of the authority to a level we would expect and would want to be proud of in Rossendale. There were various reasons for choosing these five.

"We had a report from the leisure committee the week before last where we told it would cost a minimum of £91,000 to bring Whitworth Pool back in to use or £200,000 if we went the whole hog.

"There would be great problems to adapt Haslingden Public Hall if we were following the recommendations needed in the Disability Discrimination Act.

"The use of the Astoria has been very limited over the years.

"In relation to the A, B and D Centre in Bacup, there are two halls within 200 yards of each other and we felt one of them had to go and that the leisure hall would meet the needs of the whole community rather than just the individual needs of the A, B and D Centre."