Cheshire East Council are reviewing how the borough's leisure centres are operated in an attempt to cut costs.
The Cabinet agreed on Monday, 15th October, to appoint leisure and financial consultants at a cost of £30,000 to review a range of potential delivery models available and recommend a preferred option.
Options being considered include transfering the leisure facilities to a charitable trust which has been the preferred option for many Local Authorities. This is considered likely to provide the greatest potential savings because they would be exempt from paying VAT and business rates.
The Council operates fifteen leisure centres, eight of which are shared with high schools, employing over 400 full-time equivalent staff. The total cost of operating these facilities in 2011/12 was £7.89m whilst the income generated was £5.85m - therefore taxpayers are subsiding the service by over £2m a year. This is equivalent to 75p per visit as the borough's leisure centres were visited just over 2.7 million times in 2011/12.
The report prepared for Monday's Cabinet meeting said "There is a need to achieve best value for the services we provide and reduce net operating costs wherever possible. The review of leisure services and the early establishment of the most appropriate operating model will help to achieve this.
"The selected consultant will look in detail at the options currently available to the Council and will set out the advantages and disadvantages of each model. The final report will include the likely cost and benefits of establishing a new model and an implementation plan for the preferred option."
In addition to transferring the leisure centres to a charitable trust the consultants will consider other options for operating the leisure facilities, including: a community interest company, social enterprise, a joint venture, a public sector subsidiary company and a limited liability partnership.
The consultants are expected to report back to Cabinet in December.
Comments
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As a tax payer (and I don't use the leisure centre, but did use Macc baths as a kid) I don't mind subsidising this. It's better than fat kids and people who can't afford massive gym fees to get healthy who then can't.
If they want to save money lets look at council expsenes...