FLINTSHIRE Council has said it does not "have the necessary data" to contact former Aura leisure members. 

The council has set up a Local Authority Trading Company to take over the running of leisure centres, libraries and heritage services from Aura from today (Friday, November 1).

Aura, which had been running most leisure centres, heritage and library services in Flintshire since 2017, handed over the reigns to Flintshire Council at the end of October. 

It came after the non-profit organisation and Flintshire Council have failed to reach a new long-term funding agreement. 

Council officials said they were "disappointed" after a proposed new deal offered to the employee-owned company during the summer was rejected.

However, Aura representatives said it contained stipulations they could not legally agree to.

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​A petition calling for Aura to be saved received over 3,700 signatures, and a group of indepedent Flintshire councillors' last-ditch attempt to save it failed.

Flintshire Council said it will be providing services "normal" - but leisure centres and other services are unable to honour previous bookings from today (Friday, November 1) until November 4 as the transition process takes place.

And now, Flintshire Council has appealed for Aura members to contact the local authority as it hasn't the "necessary data" to contact them.

A spokesperson said: "You may have heard that libraries, leisure centres, museum and play will operate under a new name from next month.

"Flintshire Libraries and Leisure will be providing the services you know and love as normal from November 5.

"We unfortunately do not have the necessary data to contact existing customers, so would invite anyone who has a membership or would like to find out more, to fill out the form below."

The form can be accessed via https://shorturl.at/rQhyV.

'True Independent' Connah's Quay county councillor, Andy Hughes, was among those who voted for last week's motion for Aura to be saved. 

He said: "Everyone in the True Independent Group is extremely disappointed Flintshire Council has ended its agreement with Aura to deliver its leisure and library services across Flintshire.

"The Coalition administration (Labour, The Independent Alliance and the Eagles) are repeating the same line 'Aura didn't sign the contract, so we had no choice but to hammer the coffin shut' - yet Aura has claimed for a long time the contact was un-signable in its current form. All we wanted was a pause, a mini reset to get the relevant people around the table to have one last go of saving Aura, but unfortunately, the Coalition didn't agree.

"It was only three weeks ago the leader of the council said  'we are staring down the barrel of bankruptcy' - how does that fill the residents of Flintshire with any kind of confidence in the road that lies ahead for leisure and libraries across the county?"