Sir - Your editorial comments about the management of the city council's leisure centres and swimming pools (May 16) hit the nail on the head.

Successive administrations have been struggling for a decade to improve the quality of service to our customers, and to achieve better value for money.

There have been some successes, but then things slip back again.

The problems facing the service have been analysed to death by the council's internal auditors KPMG, by the Audit Commission and by a year-long, in-house best value review group.

But, while customer numbers and income levels have remained generally good, the services provided have continued to be of very variable quality and the costs to the council have been amongst the highest in the country.

There is cross-party agreement that we need a radical step change in the quality of management. We have recently appointed a very impressive young professional leisure manager to lead the transformation of the in-house team, and we have started an in-depth exercise to test the market for external providers who can help to accelerate that transformation. It is one of the top priorities for the new city executive board, and we aim to take decisions on future strategy by early autumn. As the Hinksey Pool debacle showed, the status quo is not an option.

Bob Price, Leader, Oxford City Council