A SPORTS centre could go as part of the £1.4million cuts set out by Rochford District Council.

The axe is hovering over Great Wakering sports centre, which costs the council £80,000 a year to run.

Bosses want to hand it over to the village’s parish council, or a similar organisation by October to guarantee its future, but say they cannot rule out closure if a deal does not materialise.

Trevor Goodwin, a Conser-vative district councillor for Great Wakering and the parish council’s chairman, was adamant his parish could not afford the extra costs.

He said: “It would be a real shame if it closed and it is something I oppose. However, I am not prepared to land the taxpayers of this parish in debt.

“We simply do not have the finances to cope with that.”

Bosses at the authority outlined a sweeping array of savings yesterday to cope with Whitehall’s slow squeezing of its funding lifeline.

Despite the cutbacks, finance chiefs have avoided any compulsory redundancies and have frozen council tax at its current rate for 2011/12.

Terry Cutmore, leader of the Tory-run authority, said: “We like to think we have done this in the Rochford way – focusing on the best we can do for residents.

“It is going to be tough for everybody, but I think what we have come up with is a balanced solution.”

Grants to voluntary organisations, including the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and the Homeless Action Resource Project, will be cut by £53,000 from April.

Finance officers also want to save £15,000 by either transferring responsibility for some of the district’s public toilets to parish councils, or closing them permanently.

The complete set of proposals will be discussed by councillors at a meeting on Monday.

If they are agreed, officers will begin drawing up an official budget next month.