Is this how One Leisure operates?

In the May issue of the free listings magazine, received 26th April 2011,  there is an advert on page 9. It is for the Easter break activities for kids at St Neots leisure centre.

Sounds good but I received this copy on 26th April 2011 and the activities finished on 25th April 2011 the day after I received this magazine.

So what is the point of this advert? Is this the result of One Leisure becoming more business like?

Warning for St Neots Leisure Centre

St Neots News and Crier - 10/02/2011 digital edition

Leisure Centres in Huntingdonshire have been told to become more "business like" by Council Leader Ian Bates. It is a pity that these leisure centres which eat up £2.9 million of the budget have been let to run like this.

The idea of transferring these to a Leisure Trust has been mooted and should have been done many years ago. This will not solve the problems of the cost. Public facilities need public subsidy. If HDC is to get out of this mess it needs to take radical action over the Leisure Centres. Hopefully One Leisure is being looked into by the secretive Working Party.

Leisure is costing us the Council Tax freeze

One reason why HDC cannot take the Council Tax freeze money is because the Council is looking to not increase Leisure Centre charges next year by the amount needed.

The Government is looking to bribe HDC with £180k to freeze their portion of the Council Tax. Yet HDC is looking not to increase charges at the Leisure Centres by the full amount needed. This means the council taxpayer will have to pick up this bill.

What else is HDC doing with Leisure to reduce costs. Well HDC isn't. The Trust route for saving money has been ruled out.

HDC hasn't really got the idea of a Leisure Trust. A Trust is there to manage the Leisure Centres. HDC still has the lease and still can put in capital investments into the Leisure Centres. By not going down this route HDC is throwing away £400k a year.

But that isn't the worst bit. The new Conservative administration made much about the cost of the loan for the Eatons Community Centre. Yet when it comes to the St Ivo rebuild they are silent.

The budgeted cost of the St Ivo Leisure Centre is £3,080,000. Repayment over 50 years = £61,600. A loan taken out for 50 years will attract an interest rate (PWLB) of 4.2% or £129,360 in the first year.

The Leisure Centres keep looking like a business. Yet this business is one where the capital costs are excluded. Many Councils have put their Leisure Centres into a Trust arrangement to save money on rates and other costs. Even then I have to wonder why the Council is putting money into Leisure Centres when, really, this should be run by private sector operators. In St Ivo Leisure Centre, the District Council will put in a 5 lane bowling alley. Is this really for Councils to provide.

Councils should be here to provide services which private operators cannot. In Huntingdonshire, the Conservatives are going down the road of a state run leisure business thereby excluding the private sector from this area. Because in the end who can compete against a council which can take the losses, because the Council taxpayer picks up these losses, or has access to cheap long term finance which the council taxpayer picks up.

It is way past time that HDC finally got rid of the Leisure Centres to a Trust. But the socialists in the Conservative Group seem to want Leisure to carry in as otherwise the Council would not have a reason to exist.

Leisure Centres still costing millions

In a report to the OSP - Economic Well-being One Leisure makes a presentation on its performance during 2009/10. Seeing that One Leisure is soaking up £2.8 million of the budget it doesn't seem to be the doing much to cut the its costs.

My first problem is with some of the numbers provided in this report. The first is in section 2.

So the "new" target for 2010/11 is £2,985,000. This supposedly saves £200,000 as the Forecast after 4 months is a total of £2,756,000.  But in the 2010/11 Medium Term Plan the budget is £2,887,000.

So the "saving" of actual budget against forecast is £98,000 not £200,000.

This report goes on to talk about the forecast net loss of £512,000. But the majority of costs have been stripped out to make this figure small. Of course this makes the actual cost seems small. But the MTP is where the true figures are.

The NNDR claim is very suspicious.

But this isn't even close with their own figures. 

In 2006/07 NNDR was £293,000. In 2010/11 it has increase by £52,000 to £345,000. This equates to a 18% rise NOT 80%!

My second problem with this report is it makes no sense. Lots of half figures are banded about and the future is very unsure. There is little on tackling the deficit the Council faces. As a major item where money doesn't have to be spent there is little, other than a few cuts, to make One Leisure anywhere near break even.

It I was a member of this Panel I would send this back to the officers and get properly written and a understandable. This is simply an awful report.