The fate of two leisure centres which are under threat of closure should be decided next week at an extraordinary meeting of Cornwall Council's Cabinet.

Ships and Castles in Falmouth and Wadebridge Leisure Centre are the two facilities that still have an uncertain future after operator GLL announced it could no longer afford to run them.

The not-for-profit company told Cornwall Council last year that it wanted to stop operating five facilities in Cornwall – the others were Saltash Leisure Centre, Launceston Leisure Centre and the hydrotherapy pool in St Austell.

Since then GLL has opted to continue running the centre in Saltash, whilst Launceston will be handed back to the trust which owns it next year and discussions are still ongoing about the future of the hydrotherapy pool, with hopes that funding could be provided from the NHS or other sources.

For the centres in Falmouth and Wadebridge the council has received bids from alternative operators to take over the facilities and an extraordinary meeting of the council's Cabinet will be held next Friday (March4) when it is expected that a preferred bidder will be chosen.

Under the existing proposals the centres could close at the end of March unless a new operator is appointed. Cornwall Council has set aside some funding to help assist with the transition to any new operators.

No details of all the bidders have been released but Pendennis Leisure, a company formed by people in Falmouth who want to keep Ships and Castles open, said it had submitted its business case.

In a post on their Facebook page Pendennis Leisure state: "The fight to save Ships and Castles has entered its final stages, with facilities at Falmouth due to close in a matter of weeks unless Cornwall Council agrees to Pendennis Leisure or another provider taking over its operation.

"We are happy to confirm that Pendennis Leisure submitted a proposal on 15 February to take on the operation of Ships and Castles. We set out how a community based, professional and legal entity would take over the management and operation of Ships & Castles with a managed transition period, providing undisrupted leisure services.

"It outlines an approach which will underpin, and provide long-term stability for, the Ships & Castles, leisure services and the headland.

"We called this proposal 'People follow People' because of the strong feeling in the community that with the right local people in control of Ships & Castles, local people will once again flock to use it."

Addressing their longer term aims Pendennis Leisure said: "We have proposed to take on a 125 year lease to secure the long term future of Ships and Castles and retain the headland for the benefit of the community. We will also catalyse the construction of a new leisure centre in Falmouth / Penryn that would incorporate a 25m pool or larger. We are committed to ensuring uninterrupted availability of leisure services for the Falmouth and Penryn communities."

In Wadebridge community group Friends of Wadebridge Leisure Centre have submitted a bid to take on the centre in the town.

The extraordinary Cabinet meeting will take place at 10am on Friday March 4 at County Hall. It can be watched live online through the council's website.

Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter below to get the top 10 Falmouth stories of the week delivered straight to your inbox every Friday! No click-bait. No intrusive ads. Just news about Falmouth.

[H3] See the latest news on our Twitter and Facebook pages. [.H2]