DW Sports Fitness, the health club chain owned by former JJB founder Dave Whelan, has formed up a Primary Authority partnership with Wigan Council.

The deal will allow DW Sports Fitness to use Wigan Council as its single point of contact when working across the country on all of its health and safety issues.

The Primary Authority scheme, launched by the Local Better Regulation Office (LBOR) in April 2009, gives companies the right to form a statutory partnership with a single local authority, designed to provide robust and reliable advice for other councils to take into account when carrying out inspections or dealing with non-compliance.

The scheme builds on the aim of nation-wide businesses being able to rely on the environmental health, licensing and trading standards advice received from local authorities, in the knowledge that it is expert opinion, applicable across the UK, and a secure basis for investment and operational decisions.