Agenda item

Question 1

Councillor P Ballam referred to the Council’s corporate priorities/objectives which included “improve the health and wellbeing of our communities” and “enhance the quality of people’s lives”.  She was surprised, indeed shocked, to learn that the members of the Council’s Executive, including Councillor Buckmaster were willing to contemplate the closure of Fanshawe Swimming Pool.  Since his appointment as Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing, Councillor Buckmaster had been proactive in all matters relating to the health and physical and mental wellbeing of our residents.  We hear of postcode lottery in relation to some services provided by the National Health Service, but this would be postcode lottery on fitness in East Hertfordshire.  If you lived in some of our towns you will continue to be encouraged to keep fit in this extremely valuable way.  Some people in Ware will be disadvantaged as everyone does not drive, and indeed, we should not be encouraging the greater use of cars.  Therefore, she asked him how he could contemplate the closure of this extremely important facility in the town of Ware, a town of over 18,000 inhabitants, surrounded by rivers and other bodies of water. 

In response, the Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing commented that he felt her frustration as the question applied equally to Leventhorpe as well as Fanshawe.  He explained the thinking that was involved in the work of Members and Officers throughout this process and the circumstances with which they had been confronted.  Firstly, the great news was that the Executive was recommending an expansion of leisure services to the east and west of the District that would sustain them for the next 20 or more years, in the centres which we owned.  Previous contract renewals had been more straightforward in enabling the Council to roll on with existing arrangements concerning the joint use pools.  However, this time was different, because the facilities were of an age where substantial investment was necessary and so a long term view of our relationships was needed.

The Executive Member reminded Council of the wider financial context and the need to ensure that services remained viable in order to continue to operate them.  The centres at Leventhorpe and Chauncy were owned by the schools, and they paid a 40 per cent share of maintaining them from money received from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which would be available for at least the next two years.

The Council had to consider whether the schools would be able to commit to a long term arrangement that would justify the investment needed for a contract that had to work for 10 or more years.  The Executive Member suggested they could not and the District Council was not permitted to fund education.  Therefore, it would be important to consider security of tenure so far as the schools’ ability and willingness to form a partnership with the Council.  He referred to the long term vision needing to address these special circumstances, so that there was appropriate capacity across the District in the centres under Council control.

The Executive Member referred to the report that would be considered later in the meeting, which was not about setting any definite dates for closing any facility, but creating a framework upon which potential leisure providers could respond.  The remit of the tender process would include taking into account current and future needs, as well as in having a more direct involvement in meeting the requirements of the draft Physical Activity Strategy and Health and Wellbeing vision.

The Executive Member emphasised that the Council was willing to work with the schools, swimming clubs and other interested parties for up to 5 years.  Depending on the schools’ priorities, a range of possible outcomes would be explored including:

•        the procurement of another provider;

•        the development of a community trust/ body;

•        sponsorship from local businesses; and

•        an alternative use for the site

Finally, the Executive Member believed that the Council was listening and advised that responses had been given to all those who had made comment or petitioned with their concerns.  He would be proposing amendments to the recommendations concerning Fanshawe and Leventhorpe in order to enable a public consultation, with a report back to Council later in the year.