WELL, that was a shock. Without any public consultation, Cornwall Council appears to be trying to shut Ships and Castles leisure centre by the back door.

As I have said before the building isn’t the most attractive in the world and its warren of darkly-lit passages have confused more than one customer before now, but it’s the only leisure centre that we’ve got.

You can’t help cynically thinking this was the plan all along, to let Ships and Castles run down until the repair bill was so huge the only financially viable option was to shut it.

I know there’ll be great sadness in the corridors of power as County Hall mandarins contemplate all that prime real estate going up for sale.

Superficially the council has three options. Complete all the maintenance needed, which will now cost over a million, partially fix or close.

Now, if I was in charge of the council’s finances I know which one I’d choose. But despite trying to sneak it through while everyone else is distracted by the summer holidays, they hadn’t counted on the swell of public opinion against any closure.

Despite only being told last week the centre could close, Tempus staff rallied together and started an online petition which so far has more than 3,000 signatures.

Many people have told how generations of children have learnt to swim there and how important it is for elderly people to get cardio vascular exercise to keep them healthy. So let’s hope the council makes the right decision... But don’t hold your breath.