Issue - meetings

With the assistance of a report by the One Leisure General Manager, to consider the quarterly reports for

Authorised the General Manager (One Leisure), in consultation with the Head of Paid Service, to achieve the level of savings identified in option 2 of the report, as part of the wider Business Plan.

By way of a report by the General Manager (a copy of which is appended in the Annex to the Minute Book) the Cabinet considered the contents of a proposed Business Plan for One Leisure.  The report which included options for improving the centres cost effectiveness had been considered also by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Economic Well-Being) whose comments were relayed to the Cabinet.

In discussing the financial summary, Executive Councillors were of the opinion that the focus should remain on controllable net expenditure. Furthermore, they emphasised the need to ensure that the practice of recharging between services was equitable across the Council. Members also questioned why forecast revenue returns for One Leisure Huntingdon were significantly lower than those for One Leisure St Neots and St Ives.  In response to which the General Manager, One Leisure, explained that the level of investment at One Leisure Huntingdon had been considerably lower than the other centres and the fitness studio, spa and pool were smaller.  He added that expansion of the Centre was limited partly due to land ownership issues.

In concluding their discussions, Executive Councillors acknowledged the steps being taken to improve controllable income and expenditure and thanked all those involved.  Having noted that information on the Plan’s progress would be submitted to future meetings, the Cabinet

RESOLVED

that the General Manager (One Leisure), in consultation with the Head of Paid Service, be authorised to achieve a level of savings of the order of £250,000 as part of the wider Business Plan and in accordance with appropriate consultation procedures.

To consider a report by the General Manager, One Leisure.

(Members of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel (Social Well-Being) have been invited to attend for the discussion on this item).

(Councillor T D Sanderson, Executive Councillor for Healthy and Active Communities, was in attendance for this item).

With the assistance of a report by the General Manager, One Leisure (a copy of which is appended in the annex to the Minute Book) the Panel considered the contents of a proposed Business Plan for One Leisure and options for restructuring the existing staffing arrangements. Partway through the discussion, a detailed action plan was circulated outlining a timetable for completion of ten priority actions within the Plan.

Following an introduction by the Executive Councillor, the Panel discussed the contents of the draft Plan in detail.  In terms of the objectives within the document, Members were of the view that the Plan’s fundamental orientation needed to change so that it reflected One Leisure’s total costs. To this end, Members recommended that the Executive Councillor for Healthy and Active Communities should arrange for the Plan to be developed to include the service’s revenue position together with its capital and maintenance costs and the recharges it incurred. Members were of the opinion that the Plan’s objectives should be reviewed so that there was a clear financial target and they identified which services were in competition with other providers, those which were solely provided by One Leisure and those which were provided through collaboration or by others.

With regard to the presentation of data, Members commented that the existing figures needed to be revised to ensure that they were consistent. It was suggested that it would also be necessary to produce trading statements for individual / small groups of services, with revenue projections over a longer period of time to reflect the savings which had been identified. Generally, the Plan should include more detailed figures for individual and collective services coupled with defined timescales.

In terms of the contents of the report, questions were raised on a number of matters including the impact of changes to primary school funding arrangements, the need to compete when there were other local providers, whether the Council should establish a set amount of funding for public health initiatives and the level of savings which could be achieved in NNDR from putting the service into a trust. Clarification was also sought on the longer term action required to expand the One Leisure Business and it was suggested that some of the costings did not reflect predicted energy costs.

In terms of the options for the staff structure contained in Appendix A to the report, Members were of the opinion that they were unable to express a view without more detailed job descriptions and that further information was required on both the service impacts of the various options before such a decision was made.

The Panel was of the view that there was considerable scope for savings to be made within the One Leisure Service and that it should make whatever savings it could that did not have an impact on services at the earliest possible opportunity. This work should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83