The north’s first privatised leisure centre looks set to be brought back under public control.
Nationalist representatives in Mid-Ulster have voted to bring the Greenvale Leisure Centre in Magherafelt under council management.
The state-of the art facility - which boasts an Olympic sized swimming pool - has been managed by Cheshire based Pulse Fitness Ltd since 2012.
It is understood the Sinn Féin proposal was supported by the SDLP during a council meeting which was held ‘in committee’ last week.
It is believed unionist parties voted against the plan.
Pulse Fitness won the contract to run the facility after the old Magherafelt council completed a £9.2 renovation and facelift of the facility.
Magherafelt council faced criticism when it emerged it had done a deal with the fitness firm, which resulted in 30 people being made redundant.
Former employees who wanted to work in the new centre had to apply for the new posts.
In 2013 nationalists councillors backed a motion calling on Pulse Fitness to allow workers at the centre to meet trade union officials.
The same year the council came in for criticism from the Northern Ireland Audit Office amid claims the leisure centre may not have represented "value for money" for ratepayers.
In its annual report the audit office revealed the Co Derry project had gone £5.1m over its original contract price.
The centre was originally expected to cost £4.1m but the price rocketed by 125 per cent to £9.2m.
The audit office blamed a decision to install an Olympic-size swimming pool, adoptions to changing rooms and the installation of two biomass boilers for the increase in cost.
