Wednesday 28th February, 2024
Colchester City Council is taking a new approach to active wellbeing – sweating your arse off and getting fit – to you and me.
As ever, funding is behind this fitness rethink. Or rather a lack of it.
Long gone are the days when a Municipal model of funding for leisure centres is possible. And so instead CCC is looking for a more ‘holistic’ approach.
tl;dr Can’t afford Leisure World under its current structure. Shift instead to encouraging fitness in the community.
This is no bad move. You don’t need a Leisure World membership to stay fit; you don’t need to rely upon a local authority to provide access to a healthy lifestyle.
Just look at the continued success of both Castle Park and Highwoods ParkRuns every Saturday morning.
Organising a DIY swim is a different matter.
The Policy Panel meeting on 6th March will review the new proposals. They’re being badged up as part of the ‘Fit for the Future’ strapline.
What’s under consideration here isn’t the fitness of residents, but the fitness of CCC to be able to survive with a reduced budget.
The report Case for Change to Active Wellbeing explains:
“This report provides Policy Panel with an update on key strands of work that make up the Active and Wellbeing element of the Councils ‘Fit for the Future’ transformation programme. This proposes a shift to a more holistic active wellbeing approach for the Council’s Sport & Leisure service delivery model.”
This is broken down into three key points:
Review of the Sport and Leisure service operational staffing structure
Sport & Leisure digital system contract review
Review and development an asset strategy and delivery model for the Council’s estate
It’s grim reading from the start:
“The current sport and leisure service model in Colchester is unsustainable. The Council is required to deliver significant budget savings requiring a significant reduction in expenditure, a significant increase in income, identification of new sustainable external funding streams or a combination of all three.”
The economy may be screwed, but there is a growing demand for fitness and lifestyle facilities:
“The city continues to grow, along with demand for sport and leisure provision such as playing pitches, sports halls and swimming pools with an expectation that the Council delivers such provision.”
Point of order: membership of Leisure World isn’t exactly competitive. There are many private sector gyms popping up around the town / city that are far more affordable.
Swimming isn’t so well served. Bannantynes at the Hythe offers a cheap and cheerful alternative to Leisure World. David Lloyd in the north of the borough is also northwards when it comes to pricing.
Accessibility is key here. The Policy Panel report notes:
“There is little evidence to suggest the model is supporting those in most need.”
It is often those most in need who benefit from having cheap access to leisure facilities.
Leisure World is also causing issues for the Council when it comes to the declared Climate Emergency:
“Sport and leisure buildings generate significant carbon emissions. Wet side facilities (pools) are inherently high consumers of energy.
Colchester Leisure World accounts for the largest proportion of the Councils carbon emission footprint equating to 53.7% of the Council’s overall building emissions and 34.3% of the Council’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.”
Ouch.
But it all comes back to the money:
“The proposed structure delivers a £200k reduction in staffing expenditure.”
aka redundancies.
Welcome to the new lean, mean Colchester City Council.
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