Closing The Curve was included in council cost-savings plans earlier this year, emails seen by the Observer seem to suggest.

However, Slough Borough Council insists closure was never in its budget, and stresses that no decision on The Curve’s future has been made.

The council’s budget passed in March this year suggested as much as £735,000 could be saved through a ‘review’ of The Curve – after previous plans suggested the council could ‘explore’ its closure. They suggested £175,000 could be saved this year and another £550,000 next year.

Conservative council leader Dexter Smith said last month that ‘there were no such proposals to make a saving by closing The Curve’ after more than 2,000 people signed a Labour-backed petition to ‘save’ it.

But in an email to Labour opposition leaders before the budget was passed, senior council staff appear to suggest the savings would come from ‘closing the curve’.

Labour group leader Pavitar K Mann emailed Pat Hayes, the council’s executive director for regeneration, housing and the environment in February asking for more information on where the £175,000 in savings relating to the ‘review’ of The Curve would come from.

She asked: “In relation to the proposed £175k savings relating to the review of the Curve – exactly what does that relate to?

“What savings do you anticipate delivering this amount within the next financial year as part of the review? What assumptions have been made against the half a million pound saving factored in for 2025/26 as well?”

Mr Hayes replied that the money would come ‘from closing The Curve’. He said: “£175k is a part year saving from closing The Curve is predominantly utility bills and other building costs though includes the element of business rates not retained by Council. The £500k for following year is based on same assumptions”.

Councillor Mann then asked for confirmation that a decision had ‘already been made to close The Curve’. Mr Hayes replied that this was included in ‘budget papers in December’.

This appears to be a reference to draft savings proposals approved by the councillors on the cabinet committee, which said the council could ‘explore the closure or find alternative use of The Curve”.

Final savings proposals eventually passed by the council in March referred only to a ‘review’ of The Curve. A council spokesperson said the review could cover ‘a whole host of things’ including council leader Dexter Smith's hopes that a university could be brought in to run the building.

They said that Mr Hayes’s email to councillor Mann was describing ‘what could make the saving, and what the saving could be made up of’.

But they say ‘no formal proposals have been made’ on The Curve’s future and that ‘a whole range of options remain under discussion’.

The spokesperson said: “We understand having services or buildings under review can lead to speculation and misinterpretation which, following the council meeting last week, should now be cleared up.”

But councillor Mann said that while it’s true that no formal decision has been made, ‘the idea that it was never on the table and that we were scaremongering is nonsense’.