A CHILDREN'S facility in the centre of Salisbury will close and see its services moved to community buildings, the council has announced, in a bid to save cash.

The centre, on St Edmund's Church Street, will be one of six to shut its doors ­— which includes Mere and Pewsey, after the decision was made at Wiltshire Council's cabinet meeting this morning.

This will reduce the number of centres to 12, and save the council around £250,000, which it claims can be "directed to frontline staffing".

It has not yet been announced when the service in Salisbury will close, but when it does, the building will be handed back to the landlord.

Currently it provides help for families with young children, running support classes and clinics.

But, civic chiefs are confident the same level of service can be provided elsewhere.

As such, they have earmarked Bemerton Heath Centre and Five Rivers Leisure Centre as the new bases for the city's service, with the authority adding that Friary Community Centre is also already used.

However, Little Folly Children's Centre, in Pinewood Way, is set to stay open.

Civic chiefs also noted that the nearby Amesbury centre is run out of the parish church, which they "rent when we need it", rather than "having the expense of running a building".

"We don’t want staff sitting in empty buildings," added children's boss Councillor Laura Mayes.

"We want buildings to be where families are; we don’t want money tied up in expensive buildings.

"We will continue to offer outreach support I want to assure everybody we do understand the importance of children’s centre services and the changes we are doing is to ensure they continues.”

She added: “As a council we’ve committed to help families as early as possible to make sure they thrive.

"We are a large rural county and we need to make sure that everyone has access to these services, so we need to offer them to families and communities across the county where people are.

"This could be libraries, community and church halls, soft-play centres, playgroups, and village halls – all places where families already go."