CLOSURE threatened Ravenscraig Sports Centre could be given a reprieve - but only if Inverclyde Council can find more money.

Council leader Stephen McCabe has acknowledged that the ruling Labour group's decision to shut the facility as part of budget cuts 'has met with some criticism'.

So he has now asked council chief executive John Mundell to prepare a detailed report on the centre, with a view to it possibly avoiding the axe.

Councillor McCabe said: "This report will allow the administration to make a more considered decision on its future."

He said the closure - planned for March 2014 - was put forward as an option by council officers and Inverclyde Leisure, who manage leisure facilities on the council's behalf.

He added: "This was on the basis that they consider the centre to be under-used and in need of significant investment, which cannot be justified given the current usage levels.

"The administration could have found the money to keep the centre open by introducing a charge for swimming for Inverclyde schoolchildren and over 60s, as the SNP proposed.

"We decided against this, as we felt that the free swimming policy benefits a far larger number of people across Inverclyde."

Community councillors have been amongst those firmly against the closure of the recreation centre at Ravenscraig and their lobbying helped persuade bosses to consider a u-turn.

But this depends on cash being saved from elsewhere.

Mr McCabe said: "Following representations from users of the centre and Larkfield, Branchton and Braeside Community Council, I gave an undertaking at Thursday's council meeting that we would look again to see if we can find a way to keep the centre open, subject of course to the condition that an alternative saving or additional income would require to be identified."