Agenda item

4.1    David Walton (Community Assets Manager) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·      The majority of the borough’s leisure centres are managed by Fusion Lifestyle. Only the Downham leisure centre is under contract with 1Life. Although there are different contracts in place for these two contractors, the aims for the contracts are the same.

·      Attendance for the leisure centres has increased over the last year, especially amongst certain target groups listed in paragraph 5.2.4. Capital investment in the leisure centres has generally been followed by an increase in participation rates.

4.2    David Walton, James Lee (Head of Culture and Community Development) and Aileen Buckton (Executive Director for Community Services) answered questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      The data on usage presented in the report is based on the registered members of the leisure centres. It is difficult to capture statistics on users’ age, background or whether they’re a resident of the borough for people who pay for occasional usage.

·      There is anecdotal evidence that the Glass Mill leisure centre is particularly busy during the early morning and later afternoon/early evening. This could be due to commuters taking advantage of its location near the station but is difficult to say definitively.

·      Paragraph 5.2.9 of the report contained an error in the statistics on the usage of the Council’s free swimming scheme to be corrected after the meeting.

·      The electricity bill for the Glass Mill leisure centre is considerably higher than the other leisure centres. This is due to the fact that Glass Mill does not have a gas supply so uses electricity to heat everything including its pool where the other leisure centres use gas to heat their pools. Overall Glass Mill's utility bill is significantly lower than the other leisure centres.

·      There has been ‘lifecycle’ investment for refurbishments in the Bridge leisure centre including the toilets. There have not been complaints in recent times about the state of the toilets in the Bridge leisure centre. The pool at the Bridge leisure centre had been closed for refurbishment when asbestos was discovered in the ceiling. This issue is being addressed and the pool area is set to reopen in March.

·      The Bridge leisure centre is considered the weakest building of all the leisure centres. Instead of continuing to reinvest in repairs to a building with defects, one consideration is to look at redeveloping the site completely. This is being looked at as part of the review of the leisure centre contracts for the saving on the leisure centres scheduled for 2017-18.

·      The numbers of people following up on a GP referrals to the Exercise on Referral and Active Heart schemes and completing the schemes is low. The referral scheme as a whole is under review.

·      The usage of leisure centres by users with a disability was reduced in the last year. Two groups responsible for group bookings for disabled users have had to cancel their bookings with Fusion due to a reduction in grant funding. The Royal Society for the Blind are looking into organising exercise sessions for blind people outside the leisure centres, such as for example guide running.

·      Fusion have instituted a yearly check on the eligibility of residents for the Be Active Card. This resulted from people continuing to use scheme after they had moved out of the borough or moved from benefits into work. Officers would initiate a conversation with Fusion about how this eligibility check would relate to residents who are eligible due to a condition that does not change with time.

·      There is an on-going water leak in a meeting room in Glass Mill with an unknown cause. The likely cause is the Health Suite above the room. Dye tests have been carried out in an attempt to identify the source of the leak but this has been unsuccessful so far. Defects to the building are still generally the responsibility of the developer to fix as the building is still in a guarantee period.

4.3    RESOLVED: that the Committee note the report.