FEARS that leisure centre users would see major cost increases when Oxford City Council surrendered management of facilities appear to have come true.

Today we report that Fusion, the not-for-profit firm which runs the centres, is set to win council approval to raise all charges by 6.7 per cent.

This is to take account of inflation and the rise in VAT, they say.

Yet many costs will be well above that as the council has cynically rounded up all new costs to the next 10p.

So a child’s swim, for example, will rise 9.5 per cent from £2.10 to £2.30 and peak adult skating sessions will rise 7.8 per cent from £6.40 to £6.90.

These rises will hit people hard in what is still a period of economic stagnation.

It will also damage the drive to improve residents’ health, starkly highlighted last month with the news that one in five city children are obese.

It is true leisure facilities are improving but we hope future rises are affordable and take into account the massive hikes users will have to endure this year. It should be only a one-off.