The Leisure & Technical Services Manager introduced the report which detailed the progress made by the Member Working Group for future leisure services and asked the Committee to agree with the Working Group’s recommendation to proceed with an external procurement process for the Swale Leisure contract from April 2027 on a 10-year plus 5-year basis. 

The Leisure Consultant reported that following ‘soft’ market testing 10 responses had been received six of which were from the main leisure operators, and all had confirmed that they were interested in tendering.  The Leisure Consultant reported that the leisure operators were asked a serious of questions and they all confirmed they would:  be interested in the inclusion of Faversham Pools; expected a 10+ 5-year contract; prefer a shared area of risk; were happy to consider some capital investment; expected utility benchmarking; preferred that the operator delivered swimming lessons; and would consider the removal of car parking costs as a negative.  They also all confirmed experience of developing approaches to reduce carbon consumption and use of greener energy solutions.

The Chair invited comments from Members and points raised included:

·         Thanked officers for the report;

·         Sheerness swimming pool had a disabled friendly gymnasium but there had been issues with opening hours being reduced.  The contractor needed to supply hours that mirrored other gyms on the Isle of Sheppey;

·         had the Levelling Up Fund (LUF) been taken into consideration?;

·         important that solar panels be provided on leisure centres to save money;

·         was the Council a Sports England (SE) Funding Partner?;

·         how did officers think devolution would impact the leisure market?

·         thanked the Members Working Group and officers for their work; and

·         were any other Kent Local Authorities leisure contracts close to ending?.

In response, the Leisure & Technical Services Manager said they were aware of review and changes at Sheerness Pool disabled gym (Innerva Suite) and were working with the current operator, to ensure the opening hours were flexible, in line with demand and consistent.   The soft market testing documents had referred to the LUF project and that it would be an enhanced facility for the new contract. 

The Head of Environment and Leisure said officers had worked closely with SE and with Active Kent and Medway and the Committee would be updated on this in due course.  The Members Working Group had discussed devolution, and the Leisure Consultant said that with regard to devolution, there were two different local authority operating models she was aware of.  The Head of Environment and Leisure explained that the Members Working Group had considered the impact of devolution and considered that having a contract set pre-devolution and protecting the service for the residents of Swale was the right approach.

The Director of Regeneration and Neighbourhoods reported that senior officers would continue to engage with neighbouring authorities and as devolution progressed it was about being ‘custodians’ and securing what was best for the borough. 

Councillor Elliott Jayes proposed the recommendations, which were seconded by Councillor Mark Last.

 Resolved:

(1)      That the Member Working Group’s recommendation to proceed with a procurement process for delivery of an outsourced leisure contract on a 10 plus 5-year basis be agreed.

(2)      That the Member Working Group continued in order to oversee specification development ahead of tender.

(3)      That officers worked with the Members Working Group in finalising the tender specification and documentation and proceed with the tender.