Gazette wins a victory as council climbs down on leisure centre closures (From This Is Wiltshire)

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Gazette wins a victory as council climbs down on leisure centre closures

4:03am Friday 1st December 2006

The Gazette's campaign to save three leisure centres in North Wiltshire looks to have won a victory after they were last night given a temporary reprieve.

They will stay open until March next year.

North Wiltshire District Council, which had threatened to close the White Horse Leisure Centre in Calne, Cricklade Leisure Centre and Lime Kiln Leisure Centre in Wootton Bassett, has promised to keep them open before handing them over to the community.

At a meeting yesterday the board of North Wiltshire Leisure Ltd, the company set up by the council to runthe centres, agreed to cease managing the centres on March 31 and, subject to a staff consultation, pass them on to independent groups.

The decision offers fresh hope to community leaders and sports club heads who are drawing up plans to run the centres independently for the benefit of the people in the towns.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening the chairman of NWLL, Michael Buckley, said: "On Friday of last week, we made a commitment to announce a proposed programme of closures for the leisure facilities at Calne, Cricklade and Wootton Bassett by December 1.

"After further discussions with North Wiltshire District Council, the board of NWLL passed a resolution this morning that, subject to staff consultation, NWLL will cease to manage the centres at Calne, Cricklade and Wootton Bassett on March 31, 2007. They will stay open until that point.

"A 90 day consultation period with staff will commence on December 13, 2006.

"We hope that this period of stability will afford interested parties an opportunity to explore options for any proposed plans they might have for continued service delivery at these centres.

"Interested parties should note that information packs regarding these centres that will cover management reports, financial information, buildings' condition surveys and other information will be available from the offices of NWDC at the end of next week."

It is hoped Wiltshire County Council will help to do a deal in Calne and Wootton Bassett to keep the centres open, while Cricklade hopes to set up a community trust to keep its centre operating.

Centre manager Ron Jones said: "We have been working on a budget and we think we can sort something out. We are all very grateful for the support the Gazette has given us."

The Gazette's campaign backed by Cricklade, Wootton Bassett and Calne town Councils as well as leisure centre staff, called on the council to keep the centres open until new partners to run them could be found.

Yesterday the Gazette revealed that closing the centres would cost £40,000 a month in maintainence fees to keep them in a usable condition.

Gazette editor Gary Lawrence said: "I am pleased the council has seen sense and listened to the people of North Wiltshire. They have obviously been galvanised into doing something by the strength of feeling shown across the area.

"I am just amazed councillors could not have sorted this deal out before putting the leisure centre staff, their clubs and other users through so much worry over this last week."

North Wiltshire Leisure Trust chairman Michael Buckley said: "The three leisure centres will not be mothballed or closed until March 31. This will give community groups the chance to put together independent plans to run them. After that date North Wiltshire Leisure Ltd will cease to manage the centres."

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Carol O\'Gorman, says...
8:13am Fri 1 Dec 06

REALITY CHECK This is NOT an NWDC 'climbdown'. This is a decision made by NORTH WILTS LEISURE LIMITED to fulfil their statutory obligations to their staff. If you are sincere in your campaign to help to keep the leisure centres open then be honest with your facts. Many of us are working hard with our communitys and putting out this sort of mis-information does not help. If you still want that lunch, you are paying!! Regards
Carol

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Kevin Pamphilon, says...
9:14am Fri 1 Dec 06

In reply to the leader of NWDC, they originally set up North Wiltshire Leisure Limited to manage the leisure centres but have apparently not been monitoring the situation closely enough and should not abdicate responsibility for the current situation. Having said that, I can speak for the many sports clubs and schools in and around Wootton Bassett when I say that our focus is now very much on finding a solution to this debacle. We must strive to keep all 3 centres open permanently and I would hope that NWDC will give their full co-operation to achieving this aim.

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Max, says...
10:16am Fri 1 Dec 06

This whole problem has been brought about by the fact that when the council set up NWLL the condition of the buildings and how long they would last was overlooked. Much of the buildings are outdated and in need of repair of updating, a fact brought about by the external reports. The council has not invested in keeping thse building upto date to the point that it wsould take a great deal of investment to ensure they are around in the future. They started a company with poor facilties then just kept taking more and more money away. It takes several years for a new business to be established, you never gave them a chance.

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steve johnston, says...
8:28pm Fri 1 Dec 06

Carol, Just what are the NWDC doing "by working hard" to help the community in this case? James Gray was out in the pouring rain in Wootton Bassett with hundreds of others in support of the community's protest against this ruthless closure, where were you or any of the NWDC? Actions Carol...speak louder than words. I have 3 children involved in Gymnastics/trampolining/swimming lessons, provided by the excellent services of Lime Kiln Leisure Centre.
If this closure takes place the logistsics will be impossible (even if the other centres could absorb the knock-on effect and obvious overflow). The Govt are belatedly now heralding the need for children to be more into sports-what message does this send?. Actions speak louder than words to the community-not empty rhetoric.By the way-WELL DONE MR GRAY!

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Gary Milne, says...
1:20pm Sat 2 Dec 06

I find Ms O'Gormans comments astonishing.
Given I was involved with NWLL for five years at a senior level I have more than a little insight into the way in which the Trust and its customers were treated by NWDC.
In December 2003 NWDC were sent a letter along with that years business plan from NWLL stating very clearly that the underinvestement in faciltities and building and the undefunding of the Trust was unsustainable and tha the possibility of closure could become a relaity if it continued.
That letter and plan was availiable to all 52 councilors and was reported at NWDC Executive. That same December we invited ALL 52 councilors to an afternoon presentation to dicuss the state of NWDCs buildings and service. 10 Bothered to reply and only SIX from 52 bothered to attend. I don't recall Ms O'Gorman being one of them.
Prior to this in the September of that year the CEO resigned his post stating fears over the sustainability of the funding and the relationship with NWDC. When he left NWLL had a deficit of circa £150k which the then manaement team reduced to £40k prior to the new CEO arriving. The new management team then ran that deficit back to £240k within 12 months.
When I stopped being involved with the management of NWLL in October 2005 the deficit was circa £200k and reducing. The question is why has there been a need to borrow a further £700k in 12 months?!
Having in past employment rescued facilities under threat in the past (see www.stonehavenopenairswimmingpool.co.uk) through community involmemnt, local business and local authority partnership there is no doubt that these facilities can be rescued for the community. I will be more than happy to assist with my own time and specialist knowledge to do so again. Cricklade was a thriving little community centre prior to the Trust formation.
The big issue for the formation of any recue package is the state of the buildings and facilities which NWDC has underinvested in for the life of the Trust and prior to the
trusts formattion there was a condition surevy prepared and reported on stating that £1.5m was required to be invested. Rumour within NWDC / NWLL circles has always been that this report was suppressed from Council for fear that the Trust would not be formed.
NWDC has saved circa £1m every year since the Trusts formation in comparision to what they spent on Leisure before hand. The intention at the time by the politicians was to put much of this saving into improving th faciltites. Yet the trus intention became clear when senior NWDC council officer at a leisure industry seminar was quite open in a presentation that the Trust was formed as a money saving execrcise and had nothing to do with improving access or service for the community.
A reality check indeed Ms O'Gorman.

PS - where is the spell checker?!!

I find Ms O'Gormans comments astonishing. Given I was involved with NWLL for five years at a senior level I have more than a little insight into the way in which the Trust and its customers were treated by NWDC. In December 2003 NWDC were sent a letter along with that years business plan from NWLL stating very clearly that the underinvestement in faciltities and building and the undefunding of the Trust was unsustainable and tha the possibility of closure could become a relaity if it continued. That letter and plan was availiable to all 52 councilors and was reported at NWDC Executive. That same December we invited [bold]ALL[/bold] 52 councilors to an afternoon presentation to dicuss the state of NWDCs buildings and service. 10 Bothered to reply and only [bold]SIX[/bold] from 52 bothered to attend. I don't recall Ms O'Gorman being one of them. Prior to this in the September of that year the CEO resigned his post stating fears over the sustainability of the funding and the relationship with NWDC. When he left NWLL had a deficit of circa £150k which the then manaement team reduced to £40k prior to the new CEO arriving. The new management team then ran that deficit back to £240k within 12 months. When I stopped being involved with the management of NWLL in October 2005 the deficit was circa £200k and reducing. The question is why has there been a need to borrow a further £700k in 12 months?! Having in past employment rescued facilities under threat in the past (see www.stonehavenopenairswimmingpool.co.uk) through community involmemnt, local business and local authority partnership there is no doubt that these facilities can be rescued for the community. [italic]I will be more than happy to assist with my own time and specialist knowledge to do so again.[/italic] Cricklade was a thriving little community centre prior to the Trust formation. The big issue for the formation of any recue package is the state of the buildings and facilities which NWDC has underinvested in for the life of the Trust and prior to the trusts formattion there was a condition surevy prepared and reported on stating that £1.5m was required to be invested. Rumour within NWDC / NWLL circles has always been that this report was suppressed from Council for fear that the Trust would not be formed. NWDC has saved circa £1m every year since the Trusts formation in comparision to what they spent on Leisure before hand. The intention at the time by the politicians was to put much of this saving into improving th faciltites. Yet the trus intention became clear when senior NWDC council officer at a leisure industry seminar was quite open in a presentation that the Trust was formed as a money saving execrcise and had nothing to do with improving access or service for the community. A reality check indeed Ms O'Gorman. PS - where is the spell checker?!!

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James O'Hara, says...
2:16pm Mon 4 Dec 06

Very interesting you choose to comment Mr Milne when you clearly played a pivitol role in the demise of these facilities.

Your poor management, poor treatment of staff and constant high level battles with other senior management and operational staff led to you keeping your eye off the ball and the facility standards dropping, members and users leaving and then tears at bedtime when it all went wrong. Can it really be that hard??

Im sure your suspension was devestating for you but you should have spent less time intimidating the staff and treating the customers with respect not contempt if you wanted any sympathy. What a sorry state of affairs and quite frankly you should keep well away from this subject or anything related to it unless you are prepared to make a public apology!

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Anonymous, says...
9:48pm Mon 4 Dec 06

As a previous employee of NWLL I couldn't agree more with the comments made by James O'Hara with reference to Gary Milne. I feel that the management of the Chippenham site went severely down hill after the loss of Adrian Jones many years ago now.
It is a true loss for the local people that these sites will face closure in March next year, not to mention the staff who have devoted their time, effort and enthusiasm into keeping these sites a buzzing centre of their communities.

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Mark Ward, says...
10:02pm Mon 4 Dec 06

I read James O'Hara's comments with interest. Unsure as I am of his relationship, if any with the previous writer, he clearly has missed the point. There is obviously two sides to this story and as with most things in life human behaviour makes us fall on one sode or the other. Does it no strke James that is there is substance to what has been said then clearly many people in high places taking the tax payers hard earned money have difficult questions to answer and apologies to make? What's done is done and we have to enusre that our cummunities are not misled and duped by an incompetent Distrcil Council again - be that incompetence in the setting up of a Trust or how they then managed that Trust. We cannot escape the fact that the Leisure Centres and the service within are the District Councils responsibility, they being our custodians of such provision for us and our children.
I wouldn't be so hasty as to make assupmtions without hearing all facets of the discussion. Perhaps Mr Milne is due and apology and perhaps he is not - but he certainly isn't alone and at the very least he has spoken out. I donl;'t see Mr Milne calling for sympathy, but I do see him offering support. One suspects that he didn't have to after the events that Mr O' Hara describes.
Lets have a constructive debate to recue these leisure centres.

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James O'Hara, says...
11:10pm Mon 4 Dec 06

Mark Ward wrote:
I read James O'Hara's comments with interest. Unsure as I am of his relationship, if any with the previous writer, he clearly has missed the point. There is obviously two sides to this story and as with most things in life human behaviour makes us fall on one sode or the other. Does it no strke James that is there is substance to what has been said then clearly many people in high places taking the tax payers hard earned money have difficult questions to answer and apologies to make? What's done is done and we have to enusre that our cummunities are not misled and duped by an incompetent Distrcil Council again - be that incompetence in the setting up of a Trust or how they then managed that Trust. We cannot escape the fact that the Leisure Centres and the service within are the District Councils responsibility, they being our custodians of such provision for us and our children. I wouldn't be so hasty as to make assupmtions without hearing all facets of the discussion. Perhaps Mr Milne is due and apology and perhaps he is not - but he certainly isn't alone and at the very least he has spoken out. I donl;'t see Mr Milne calling for sympathy, but I do see him offering support. One suspects that he didn't have to after the events that Mr O' Hara describes. Lets have a constructive debate to recue these leisure centres.

The point being Mr Ward that my relationship with Mr Milne as a previous NWDC Officer allowed me an insight into the background behind what the press report on and I assure you the truth is even murkier than the muddy reporting we are subjected to with this whole sorry tale.
Leisure Centres DO NOT MAKE A PROFIT
Leisure Centres ARE A SERVICE NOT A BUSINESS

Mr Milne and some of his allies were making difficult decisions like all local authorities but I dont see other leisure centres going into administration because they have been so poorly managed, tough decisions are taken all the time but they are often the correct decisions, NWLL made wrong decision after wrong decision.

One by one the good staff left for pastures new and the ones that stayed were subjected to what I understand was nothing short of torture.

Managing leisure centres is a skill and a cut in grant is one thing but if facilties are managed properly they can recoup losses and absorb cuts without the unforgivable prediciment we are now in,

The truth is service delivery at all the NWLL sites dropped and it dropped sharply when Mr Jones left. Mr Milne was far from a scapegoat, he was the face of failure from start to finish.

Rest assured other authorities and citizens up and down the UK are looking at us thanking their lucky stars they dont live in North Wiltshire with such a disgraceful council. If you want to keep making excuses for them but leave me out of it.

[quote][bold]Mark Ward[/bold] wrote: I read James O'Hara's comments with interest. Unsure as I am of his relationship, if any with the previous writer, he clearly has missed the point. There is obviously two sides to this story and as with most things in life human behaviour makes us fall on one sode or the other. Does it no strke James that is there is substance to what has been said then clearly many people in high places taking the tax payers hard earned money have difficult questions to answer and apologies to make? What's done is done and we have to enusre that our cummunities are not misled and duped by an incompetent Distrcil Council again - be that incompetence in the setting up of a Trust or how they then managed that Trust. We cannot escape the fact that the Leisure Centres and the service within are the District Councils responsibility, they being our custodians of such provision for us and our children. I wouldn't be so hasty as to make assupmtions without hearing all facets of the discussion. Perhaps Mr Milne is due and apology and perhaps he is not - but he certainly isn't alone and at the very least he has spoken out. I donl;'t see Mr Milne calling for sympathy, but I do see him offering support. One suspects that he didn't have to after the events that Mr O' Hara describes. Lets have a constructive debate to recue these leisure centres.[/quote] The point being Mr Ward that my relationship with Mr Milne as a previous NWDC Officer allowed me an insight into the background behind what the press report on and I assure you the truth is even murkier than the muddy reporting we are subjected to with this whole sorry tale. Leisure Centres DO NOT MAKE A PROFIT Leisure Centres ARE A SERVICE NOT A BUSINESS Mr Milne and some of his allies were making difficult decisions like all local authorities but I dont see other leisure centres going into administration because they have been so poorly managed, tough decisions are taken all the time but they are often the correct decisions, NWLL made wrong decision after wrong decision. One by one the good staff left for pastures new and the ones that stayed were subjected to what I understand was nothing short of torture. Managing leisure centres is a skill and a cut in grant is one thing but if facilties are managed properly they can recoup losses and absorb cuts without the unforgivable prediciment we are now in, The truth is service delivery at all the NWLL sites dropped and it dropped sharply when Mr Jones left. Mr Milne was far from a scapegoat, he was the face of failure from start to finish. Rest assured other authorities and citizens up and down the UK are looking at us thanking their lucky stars they dont live in North Wiltshire with such a disgraceful council. If you want to keep making excuses for them but leave me out of it.

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Marcus Hewitt, says...
11:18pm Mon 4 Dec 06

Maybe the extra 700k needed Mr. Milne was to balance the massive pay off you received from NWLL when you "resigned". Rumoured to be a substantial sum. How dare you express your opinion on this matter and pose as an innocent bystander when you were nothing of the sort.

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Anonymous, says...
10:36pm Tue 5 Dec 06

I fail to see how speculation and rumour help at these times and I think it is appalling that Mr Hewitts unsubstantiated claims have been printed. As an ex-employee I have looked on with horror at some of the reporting surrounding the closures of the three centres. The two main issues are that there has been NO capital investment in these sites in years, the county council only pay peanuts for there school use.
I do not agree with everything Mr Milne has said but most of it is correct and can be verified I would have thought.
If Mr O'HARA was aware of bulling and poor finacial management going on WHAT DID HE as an Officer in the council do about it!

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Jo Moran, says...
9:05pm Thu 7 Dec 06

James O'Hara wrote -The point being Mr Ward that my relationship with Mr Milne as a previous NWDC Officer allowed me an insight into the background behind what the press report on and I assure you the truth is even murkier than the muddy reporting we are subjected to with this whole sorry tale.
Leisure Centres DO NOT MAKE A PROFIT
Leisure Centres ARE A SERVICE NOT A BUSINESS
- So come on then Mr O'Hara do tell us what the murky truth is behind all of this. Thousands of people in our communities are desperate to learn the truth to enable us to move forward and return Cricklade, Lime Kiln and White Horse Leisure Centres to the standards we should expect of a country hosting the Olympic Games in 6 years from now. NWDC should stop hiding behind the excuse that Leisure is a discretionary service - put your money where your mouth is and lobby central government if necessary like the rest of us.
Whatever the muddy truth is NWDC are complicit in its making.

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