The future of Bracknell Leisure Centre will be decided by leading councillors next week – but the discussion will be held behind closed doors.

Bracknell Forest Council and Everyone Active – which runs the leisure centre – want to press on with a major overhaul. The plans include a big new soft play to replace Whoosh, which is set to close next month, July 8.

It will be the second phase of a refurbishment that began after Everyone Active took over in March 2018. But the private company and the council – which owns the centre – are keeping their cards close to their chests for now.

Options for the refurbishment are up for discussion by the council’s executive committee – the body of leading councillors – at a meeting on Tuesday, June 20.

The meeting is open to the public and press. But it is likely that councillors will vote to exclude them from that discussion so that it will be held in private.

They can do this under rules that say information about an individual’s financial or business affairs can be exempt from being discussed in public. But councillors still have to decide that it is more in the public interest to keep the discussion private than have it out in the open.

A statement from, Bracknell Forest Council said: “The papers for the executive decision on investing in Bracknell Leisure Centre to further improve the site for residents and visitors are restricted. This is because they contain detailed financial information that cannot be shared more widely.

“It is usual practice for public bodies to restrict commercially sensitive information.”

READ MORE: Whoosh soft play owner says closure is ‘shame’

The closure of both Whoosh – and the Bodyzone gym just weeks before – has generated a lot of interest in what will replace them. Both had been in Bracknell Leisure Centre for over 20 years, and many users were sad to see them go.

Whoosh owner David Michael said he had been told Everyone Active had plans to refurbish and run the soft play itself. Neither Everyone Active nor the council would comment at the time on their plans.

But they said the refurbishment would be discussed at a meeting of the whole council on Wednesday, July 12.

Now the council has suggested that some of the information would still remain confidential.

The council said: “We know there is a lot of interest in the plans to improve the centre.

“If the executive agrees on the plans, a full set of public papers with a confidential annexe will go to council in July. We will also produce a wider set of communications and publicity if the plans are agreed at full council.”