Sequence dancers have joined the fight to save a leisure centre where they have been meeting for more than 20 years.

Pensioners gathered at Willenhall Leisure Centre last night to hand over a petition bearing 3,500 names calling on Walsall Council to reprieve it.

The closure of the leisure centre has been earmarked in the council’s draft budget plan for next year, which aims to save £11.2 million by cutting services and jobs.

Betty Smith, aged 80, and her husband Frank, 82, have been running the Wednesday afternoon and evening class for the last 21 years and say they have between 40 and 80 regulars, including two over 90.

“We are all worried. It is such a nice place, and handy for all of us,” said Mrs Smith. Grandmother Hilda Millington, aged 91, of Bloxwich, has been dancing at the centre for more than 20 years.

The former Yale locksmith worker said: “We have been coming here for such a long time. I really enjoy it – it is a social focal point. We don’t like them knocking old buildings down.”

Wyn Williams, a former factory worker of Willenhall, said: “I don’t want it to close. It is lovely here and it is worrying me.”

The 91-year-old grandmother added: “They put on a lovely night and it is not too far for me to come. I would rather come here than go anywhere else. I really want the council to change its mind.”

The petition was organised by campaigner Diane Coughlan and was handed to Willenhall ward’s Councillor Carl Creaney, who is to deliver it to Walsall Council.