RECESSION stricken Hounslow residents may have watched some pounds go up in a bid to save others.
Leisure centre visits have dropped by nearly a third over the past three years as it is thought householders cut spending on 'luxuries' to survive the downturn.
This combined with dramatic refurbs on the area's leisure facilities have left the borough council looking at ways to claw back the visitor numbers.
A spokesman for the authority said the drop could be for a number of reasons, including the economic situation, which have left the figures in a "sorry state".
Individual trips to the area's leisure facilities have plummeted from 1,404,153 in the year 2007 to 1,030,529 in 2009, according to figures obtained by the Hounslow Chronicle through a freedom of information request.
The worst affected site is the Lampton Sports Centre in Hounslow which has seen visitor figures drop by nearly 50 per cent, from 95,742 in 2007 to 59,197 last year.
The New Chiswick Pool has faired the best, with a drop from 134,478 guests three years ago to 120,126 last year.
Heston Pool was also one of the facilities to suffer less with a drop of 19,790 visits from 181,400 in 2007.
A spokesman for the London Borough of Hounslow said: “We think the numbers reduced in 2008 as the new system for counting visitors came in after July.
“In 2009, Brentford Fountain was being refurbished for half of the year so that would have impacted the figures there. The other centres were in a poor state of repair so they may have lost visitors, but the improvements underway should help reverse the trend.”
