Agenda item

To receive the report of the head of economy, leisure and property.

David Buckle, Chief Executive, Chris Webb, Facilities Development Manager (Leisure), Ben Whaymand GLL Partnership Manager, Steve Hercus, GLL Regional Manager and  Ben Dickson, GLL Divisional Director, formed the panel who presented this report to the committee and who answered questions from members of the committee.

The committee raised the following points during the course of the discussion.

There had been a significant reduction in the usage of dry sites particularly at the Abbey and Parkside centres. The panel confirmed that this was largely due to the gymnastic clubs moving to better facilities elsewhere. The contractors are continuously reviewing the programme and products which it provides to increase turnover, diversification and usage.

There appeared to be a high turnover of management staff and the committee wished to know how this would be addressed. The contractor felt that turnover was not unusually high for the leisure industry and that most of the turnover was due to promotion within the group.

The committee sought clarification on the difference between KPT 7 & KPT 9 (subsidy per visit and cost per visit). A written answer would be provided and appended to the minutes.

The committee sought clarification on how the council had exceeded the minimum income which it should receive under the contract. A written answer would be provided and appended to the minutes.

The main deliverable of the contract was to increase participation in the council’s leisure facilities, yet performance on this was down by 10 percent and rated as “poor”, however the head of service has used his discretion to raise this to “good” and therefore the overall assessment is “good”, despite empirical evidence to the contrary. The panel confirmed that this was due to the single issue of the gymnastics club at Abbey to a stand-alone facility at Berinsfield. If that one event is excluded then participation levels have increased. Further concern was raised that the participation numbers can be so significantly skewed by one event and that there is a lack of robustness.

New vending machines are being trialled within the group locally, which uses a local company and should ensure that this service is more reliable and use healthier food options. It is hoped that this will improve the reliability of the vending machines. This should improve the KPT rating which is currently very poor.

The council satisfaction section of the report raises issues that too many maintenance items are being missed. GLL will take these concerns on board and address them.

The report highlighted the lack of activity classes and taster courses over the summer. The contractor are employing staff directly to deliver increased participation and are working with the council’s participation officers.

Comments have declined drastically. GLL will work to improve this for the next report.

Cleaning was highlighted as a consistent issue by council staff. GLL undertook to take this on board and to address it.

The committee noted the improvement in GP referrals and complimented the contractor in achieving this.

Some members raised concerns about the content of the reports which reviewed the performance of the council’s contractors. The format of these reports is under review and will be bought back to Scrutiny before being adopted.

The committee debated whether the contractor should be awarded a “fair” or a “good” for their performance over the last year. Concern was raised that issues which have a major effect on users were not adequately covered in the report and that the Cabinet member would have to make a decision based on incomplete information.

On balance, the committee agreed to recommend an award of “good” to the Cabinet member for leisure.