Agenda item

To receive the report of the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Physical Activity.

Councillor Wood as Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Physical Activity reported on the respective areas of his Portfolio, which detailed the Council’s published priorities, major ongoing programmes of work, issues impacting delivery, financial performance and budget requirements and potential changes being considered.

He highlighted the key elements of his portfolio which included the Live and Move work, carried out in partnership with Sport England and a number of key stakeholders across the city as well as the Leisure Service with the many challenges faced.

The following responses to Members were given by the Portfolio Holder:-

·    funding opportunities from Government had changed with bids invited on a competitive basis. As stated in the Portfolio Holder report, a recent funding bid in respect of reducing the carbon impact and improving sustainability for swimming pools had been unsuccessful. Northbrook Pool would have been an ideal beneficiary, as investment had already been made at the Riverside Leisure Centre and the passivehaus St Sidwells Point facility.  Although a second tranche of funding had opened, the criteria had not changed and the bid was deemed likely to have the same result. The Leisure team were adept at identifying funding opportunities, and making bids but there needed to be a good chance of success to warrant further staff time and effort.

·         the pool at the Riverside was a key asset and function for the western side of the city. There had been significant investment at the Centre after the fire and there were no plans to close that facility.  Improvement work has taken place to address issues on the roof, which was divided into three sections, to both strengthen and make more waterproof with just a joining section of the roof to complete.

·         the work of Leisure Services and the Live and Move teams was interconnected and efforts continued with Sport England to engage those harder to reach individuals to encourage physical activity which was the core focus and function of the Live and Move Strategy.

·         communicating the overall message of culture, lifestyle and fitness through the Council’s Communications teams as well as the Leisure Communications team and the Council’s newspaper, the Citizen had been successful. The popular Pay As You Go app runs alongside the monthly membership offer and the numbers using the city’s leisure centres on a daily basis was testament to the quality of the service offered.  Statistics have shown that there was still some work as part of the Live and Move strategy shows there was still some work to do with those people who might have limited time and resources. In response to a further question on developing a more interactive or tailored experience for the individual, the Service Lead Leisure, Culture and Tourism advised that the gym equipment in the Leisure Centres was linked to the My Fitness, My Wellbeing app, with data collected to feed into the Live and Move Strategy.  Further work was being undertaken to improve the data collection.

·         referencing the data company Deep Green, and a link between heat loss and sustainable activities in leisure centres. St Sidwells Point does not need this and there was no industrial activity to help Northbrook Pool. The Service Lead Culture, Leisure and Tourism added that there were logistical issues in this regard in the Plant Room at the Riverside, but that could change if the equipment in the plant room was updated. 

·         maintaining adequate levels of staff in the leisure centres throughout the year, especially poolside with also dependent on student availability as well as the national shortage of lifeguards and swimming instructors remained a challenge for the service. Budgetary constraints had put additional pressure around, energy costs in the Leisure Centres, but they have continued to remain open as well as bring the staff in house, when many other Centres have closed.

·         he would work with the Service Lead Leisure, Culture and Tourism to provide some evidence to meet Councillor Moore’s request for examples of the effort needed for bids to share at a forthcoming LGA event she was attending.

·          theBromhams Farm Playing Field building was well located and he was keen to meet with any community members who might put forward any ideas for a sports facility.  There were larger changing facilities at the King George V Playing Fields, and they were exploring ways to expand the use and make more of a centre for the community and offer more cohesion within the sporting community. The Bromhams Farm Playing Field represents a similar opportunity.

·         despite a very competitive environment, the challenges in running the leisure service and utility costs which were still comparatively high, he was confident the income would exceed the budget agreed at Council. The team continued to explore every opportunity to increase the income, through engagement with communities and delivering activities and he anticipated more growth income next year.  A balanced budget will depend on a number of factors and whilst he was not in a position to commit, the aim was to look at less subsidy from the General Fund to support the services.

·         the pricing structure to assess the facilities of leisure services were offered at the lowest rate that could be sustained across all of the service. The team were currently exploring a new leisure card, which would be targeted at those who were least active and whose inactivity represented a potential risk to their physical or mental health. Those individuals will be identified through their GP or other health group and invited to engage on a tailor made programme. The card will also offer a reduced Pay As You Go access as part of a period of reduced membership for off peak access to those individuals with limited income to encourage them to visit the leisure centre environment.

The Portfolio Holder also responded to advance questions received from Councillors M Mitchell and Read.  The responses were set out in italics below:-

Questions from Councillor Read

What are the leisure service income generation targets and how is financial performance progressing against these?

The 23/24 income target for the leisure portfolio is £4.05m and to date, actual income received is £3.6m (89% of the target had already been achieved). The income generation target was likely to be exceeded by quite a significant figure.

In respect of your reference to ageing leisure stock, what is the funding requirement for the capital programme for these repairs and how do you expect it to be funded?

The following figures were given:-

·        Leisure Property enhancements £2.1m budget

·        funding will be from borrowing and or from the various competitive funding opportunities

·        Leisure Equipment Replacement £661.7k budget

·        Leisure equipment replacement, £100k is a year-on-year budget funded from capital receipts. A sum of £561.7k is leftover from the previous leisure capital budget and been combined with the £100k to give an enhanced spend on a rolling replacement equipment programme across the leisure stock which does become worn out.

          The Portfolio Holder responded to a follow up question on the percentage of borrowing and stated that at this stage it was not possible to confirm, but currently, borrowing was not an option due to the high interest rates.  There would be different criteria if capital investment was required for health and safety reasons. Many of the funding opportunities bid for also required an element of investment from the Council.

Questions from Cllr Mitchell

Can you provide an update on the work on the Riverside roof, the total expected costs against the budget and will this work to fix the roof be the end of the work on site?

The work to consider the replacement of the middle section of the roof at Riverside was nearing the end of the feasibility stage. . The overall Cost Plan was being developed as part of the conclusion to the Feasibility Stage and this will confirm the cost position against budget.  It was expected that the Feasibility Stage will be concluded prior to Christmas. Once the Riverside gym roof is fixed, all three roofs at the facility will then have been replaced.  Unfortunately there was no guarantee that other aspects of the building would not fail over the coming years which will require further repair work, in this busy municipal building.

In response to a further question on whether the costs identified in the Feasibility study would meet the supplementary budget for roof work, the Portfolio Holder stated that the work would remain within budget. He added that a funding opportunity was being explored as well, and if successful that would reduce the funds needed to invest in the building.

In regard to St Sidwells Point Leisure centre can the Portfolio Holder provide details of the membership figures and attributable income against revenue costs for the last year?

The figures and the volume of people using the facility of the team to keep the facility at the standard were as follows - .

Since St Sidwells Point (SSP) was built there have been 1,960,811 visitors

There are 5256 live SSP members

There are 43,000 pay-as-you-go members

The Membership base has doubled in the first year since opening SSP and that is a clear indication of the current position.

All membership and all other income revenue streams are attributable against revenue costs.

In respect of a £2.1m subsidy for the service, the costs were applied holistically against that service wide membership. They are running a service and facility in the city and were keen to sustain it.  SSP is a certified passivehaus building and the costs of running it are lower than any other comparable building in the city.

Councillor Mitchell followed up the question and referred to income in 2022/23 being £1.67m against a cost of £2.845m. The net cost to the budget was £1.172m against the membership income of £1.583m and he asked what actions might be taken to reduce the costs. He acknowledged that there were start-up costs.

The Portfolio Holder referred to the service wide challenges and the pressures of the high utility costs and inflation which was reflected in the rising staff costs. Every effort was being made to increase the income, despite starting from a difficult place in a difficult industry. When the budget was set, a sum of £2.1m was requested but he anticipated that the same level of funding would not be required in the next year.

Members noted the Portfolio Holder’s report.