A charitable trust set up to manage Kirklees Council's sports, leisure centres and swimming pools is up and running following the final appointments to its eight-strong board.

Kirklees Active Leisure, a not-for-profit trust, will manage ten centres, including Spenborough Pool and Peak Physique and Whitcliffe Mount Sports Centre. Its aim is to get more people, more active, more often, in Kirklees.

Trust status means an additional £500,000 a year will be available to pump into badly needed repairs and refurbishments. A detailed survey has identified that long term investment of approaching £25m is needed to bring the facilities up to modern standards required to meet customer expectations in the expanding leisure industry.

The board members are chairman David Heddon, retired after 25 years as regional director for Sports England for Yorkshire; Eva Lambert, former chief executive of Huddersfield Health Trust and an active sportswoman; Chief Inspector David Lunn who has special responsibility for Community Safety with West Yorkshire Police; Councillor Colin Walder; Bruce Deadman, former assistant director of Kirklees Leisure and Recreation Services; John Briggs, managing director of a local firm; Julie Muscroft, a solicitor; and Satnam Singh Khela, trustee of the Sikh Leisure Centre.