“We believe sport is critical to building the happy and healthy
communities that local councils want to see. So a response to
budget pressures is finding solutions that provide attractive
alternatives and ensure greater efficiency without the need to cut
local sports provision."
Charles Johnston, Sport England’s Property Director.
Senior figures from local authorities,
leisure operators and Sport England are coming together to show
that community sport programmes do not need to suffer as a result
of pressure on council budgets.
A series of seminars being run by Sport
England will show how strategic solutions to leisure facility
provision can save up to 30% from revenue and capital costs without
compromising services.
“We believe sport is critical to building the
happy and healthy communities that local councils want to see,”
said Charles Johnston, Sport England’s Property Director. “So a
response to budget pressures is finding solutions that provide
attractive alternatives and ensure greater efficiency without the
need to cut local sports provision.
“By highlighting some of the great examples of
efficient and innovative work by local authority leisure services
and leisure operators, we hope to help councils make the strategic
decisions that will deliver more sport for less.”
Speakers at the seminars will include local
authority chief executives and directors as well as senior figures
from major leisure operators.
Among the
case studies to be discussed will be Elmbridge Borough Council,
which is saving £6 million from its revenue budget over 15 years
thanks to its decision to replace two ageing leisure facilities
with a new, state-of-the-art wet and dry leisure centre. This has
led to a huge increase in the number of local people playing sport
at the facility.
“The five years since the completion of the
centre has given us hard evidence to show that replacing a number
of small, ageing facilities with fewer larger ones providing an
up-to-date active leisure experience can actually save money in the
long term as well as getting the whole community more active,” said
Steve Phipott, the CEO of DC Leisure which managed the
building of the Xcel Centre in Elmbridge.
The seminars will also see the launch of
‘Affordable 25m Community Pools’, a new Sport England/ASA guide to
low-cost capital and operational solutions for swimming. The
benefits of following the approach outlined in the guide
include:
- Construction costs of between £2.1 million
and £4 million
- An operating budget that can create a surplus of around £24,000
per year
- A new swimming pool can be opened within 24 months of the
decision to proceed.
This low-cost approach to building swimming
pools will make a fundamental difference to capital investment
decisions when considered as part of a rationalisation
programme.
If you work at a senior level within the
sector and are interested in attending a seminar, please contact
events@sportengland.org
Seminar details:
- 1 November - Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Complex –
Elmbridge, Surrey
- 7 November – Heywood Sports Village – Rochdale
- 6 December – Spiceball Leisure Centre – Banbury,
Oxfordshire