Fife Council is to invest £50m in health and fitness facilities as it moves its sports and leisure centres into a trust.

A policy, finance and asset management committee gave the go-ahead for the creation of a sports and leisure trust after considering a number of options and reviewing a robust financial model for the new trust.

The £50m capital investment will be funded from prudential borrowing, capital funding and external funding from sportscotland.

“This will be the single biggest financial investment Fife has ever seen in sports and leisure,” said chair of the committee and council leader, Peter Grant.

“We’ve talked about new sports and leisure facilities for far too long. Now it’s time to move Fife forward and start turning our vision into a reality.”

Work will start immediately on setting up the trust, which will be responsible for all 12 of Fife’s sports and leisure centres, plus two new facilities soon to open in Dunfermline – the Duloch Leisure Centre and Pitreavie Athletics Centre.

The trust will lease the centres from the ouncil with an anticipated start date of April 2008.

Depute council leader Cllr Elizabeth Riches stressed that Fife’s smaller centres would not be forgotten. “They are equally as important as the larger centres and will not be starved of investment. Working in partnership with others, especially our local communities will ensure facilities that fit local needs best.”

Photograph: Peter Grant, leader of Fife Council