A special team has been set up at Oxford City Council to get to the bottom of why its troubled leisure department is overspending by so much.

The authority looks set to overspend by nearly £1m this year - and nearly one third is down to leisure and cultural services.

Now council chief executive Peter Sloman has taken direct control of the issue and will oversee a specially convened fortnightly leisure board.

Finance chiefs are predicting a £975,000 overspend this year - £306,000 in leisure and culture.

The problems have been blamed on the delays in closing Peers Sports Centre in Little- more and an overspend on staffing.

Last month, some swimming pools had to be closed early because of staff sickness.

The situation in leisure has shown little improvement since auditors branded parts of the service "unacceptable" during a visit last year.

But Mr Sloman vowed that the books would be balanced at the end of the financial year by using additional savings and one-off grants.

He said: "The council went into this year looking for £4m in efficiency savings - we have achieved £3.1m of them."

He said the leisure board aimed to increase savings within the department.

Mr Sloman added: "It brings together top managers to provide support to leisure services.

"That meets fortnightly and reports to me.

"I want to make sure we don't have a repeat of these problems next year and we're starting now by getting more support into leisure services."

What to do with the leisure department continues to be a headache for the city council, with the Liberal Democrat administration unable to convince opposition parties that transferring control to a not-for-profit trust would be the way forward.

Labour group leader Bob Price said if the council was forced to make a further £1m cut in next year's budget, on top of the £5.2m it already had to find, it would lead to significant cuts in services.