A press release from Mendip District Council on 13 March 2013 (see ‘Review of Leisure Centres aims to generate new investment’ http://www.mendip.gov.uk/article/2084/Review-of-leisure-facilities-aims-to-generate-new-investment stated:

“Mendip District Council is to launch a district-wide review of its leisure provision in a bid to encourage investment and provide residents with improved facilities and a new range of leisure activities.

At its meeting on Monday (11^th March) the council’s Cabinet approved a procurement process in relation to council-owned sports and leisure facilities. Whilst the council’s current leisure contract with Avalon has been a success, the review is being launched now as the contract will be coming up for renewal in May 2015. The council’s leisure facilities are extremely popular, with more than 873,000 visits made to them last year. However, the buildings that house Mendip’s sports centres and swimming pools are ageing and new investment is needed to provide top quality facilities for residents. With continuing pressures on local authority finances, the necessary improvements are not something that can be funded solely by the council. In view of this, a procurement process is to be launched in an attempt to establish a new partnership with the private sector to develop facilities and improve the district’s leisure offer. The sites that are contained in the procurement process are: Strode Pool, Shepton Mallet Lido, Wells Leisure and Frome Leisure Centre. Built leisure provision across the district will be considered as part of the process.

Once option appraisals for the sites have been drawn up, users will be fully consulted on the proposals. Donna Nolan, Corporate Manager for Governance, Assets and Public Spaces, said: “The council’s leisure facilities are very popular with people of all ages across the district and we want to make sure that the people of Mendip have access to high-quality leisure centres and swimming pools. While our current facilities are in an acceptable condition, they are ageing and we need to encourage more investment in the buildings. This procurement exercise marks the start of a process that could transform the way our leisure facilities look and operate in the years to come.”

… The council will begin the review through a ‘soft’ market testing exercise, which will see it talking to the private sector to gain insight on how the market might approach delivering leisure services in the district. The first stage of the procurement project will get under way in April 2013.”

Reviewing the proposals, I am pleased to see the Council is committing to the future of leisure centres in the district. This should attempt to build a legacy for sport in Mendip after the success on the London 2012 Olympics as much as possible.

The contractors bidding for the future contract would be expected to have a good knowledge of local leisure needs. However, so should the council during this process. I would therefore like to see a ‘call for evidence’, an initial brief period of local fact-finding and consultation with stakeholders (including sports clubs, schools, parish/town/city councils, and the community), based on the Leisure Strategy, to add to the Council’s knowledge of the use of the current facilities and the community’s ambitions for the future.  This could be carried out by the retained leisure consultants and overseen by the Steering Group.  I think that stakeholders should be very happy to feed in their knowledge and experiences into the Council’s future strategy, and it will help build community support for the Council’s future decisions, otherwise valuable knowledge may not be gained.  To my knowledge there are number of initiatives for improving sports facilities and obtaining significant external funding which have either started or are being considered which need to be taken into account at the earliest stage. For example, discussions between Frome Community College and local sports clubs, and between Somerset FA and local football clubs and schools in Frome (in relation to a new artificial football pitch).

Also, securing access for the community to sports facilities at independent schools would indeed be welcome, and I hope that the Council can learn from its previous attempts to do so by drawing on the experience of councillors involved in those previous discussions.

I also look forward to the results of the Somerset Active Sports Partnership playing pitch assessment, and sports facilities strategy, as any action plan arising from these will need to be fully considered as part of this process.

Subject to the above being considered favourably, I am very supportive of this process and look forward with other councillors to helping the Council maintain and improve leisure in Mendip for the future.
Cllr Adam Boyden
Shadow Portfolio Holder for Governance, Assets and Public Spaces