A new community interest company has been set up to help keep Falmouth's leisure centre open and protect Pendennis Headland from development.

Pendennis Leisure has been created in response to the possible closure of Ships & Castles in Falmouth.

The leisure centre is one of five leisure facilities in Cornwall which are at risk of closure after operator GLL said it could no longer run them without financial support – the others are leisure centres in Wadebridge, Launceston and Saltash and the hydrotherapy pool in St Austell.

Ben Leach has been a key part in setting up Pendennis Leisure which he says will work to protect both Ships & Castles and the headland.

There have been concerns raised that if the leisure centre closes then the site could be sold for redevelopment for luxury homes or a hotel.

Mr Leach said that it was clear that many people in Falmouth and the surrounding area wanted to not only protect their leisure facilities but also the headland.

He said that the first he heard about the threat to Ships & Castles was when a public meeting was held by Cornwall Council as part of its consultation exercise.

Since then he said he has met with a number of different community groups as well as people from Cornwall Council and Falmouth Town Council to find out the best course of action.

He said: "We have realised that the only way for Falmouth and Penryn and the surrounding areas to keep a public pool and leisure facilities and save the headland from private housing or hotel development would be to keep Ships & Castles running.

"We are not saying that Ships & Castles is perfect but we need to get behind the efforts to save it before we can start to address any issues.

"The real threat is that Cornwall Council could sell it for millions of pounds and huge luxury homes would go up there and the headland would be lost forever.

"Some people really want to protect the pool, others want to protect the headland but we need to do both."

Pendennis Leisure is being led by a management team with extensive experience and Mr Leach said he was confident that they would be able to work with the community to save the centre from closure.

He admitted that the time schedule was tight but said that it was hoped that they could produce a business case before Cornwall Council's Cabinet meets in December to decide the fate of the centres.

The council has said that leisure centres are not a statutory service and that it has no budget for them but has said it would work with community groups which might be able to take them over.

Mr Leach said: "Everybody is behind the pool and wants to keep it open and doesn't want to see private housing built there. There has been such a groundswell of support in the local community I am hopeful we can find a solution."

And he said that should Ships & Castles be saved there were already ideas for how to make it more successful and with an overall aim of improving the facilities available.

One of the criticisms of the Falmouth pool is that it is not suitable for fitness swimming and Mr Leach said that Pendennis Leisure would be looking at all suggestions for the future of leisure facilities in the area.

The community interest company is holding a community event on November 21 at 1pm where it hopes to bring together people to show their support. Full details will be provided on the Pendennis Leisure Facebook page in due course.