Trust to run pools and gyms

10:17am Friday 8th April 2005

SWIMMING pools and adjacent gyms in Sawbridgeworth and Bishop’s Stortford are being let out to a charitable management trust.

Grange Paddocks Pool and Gym, Bishop’s Stortford, which is owned by the council, and the Leventhorpe Pool and Gym, Sawbridgeworth, which is owned by The Leventhorpe School, will be run by charitable trust Enfield Leisure Centres Ltd (ELCL) from July 4.

The five-year deal including three other swimming pools in east Herts will save the council £1m and should ensure the improvement of council-owned leisure facilities.

ELCL already runs seven leisure facilities in the London Borough of Enfield.

Councillor Nigel Poulton, East Herts Council’s executive member with special responsibility for swimming pools, said: “ELCL is highly experienced with the commercial skills and knowledge to improve and develop the leisure experience for the local community.

“The existing leisure facility staff will transfer to ELCL with their existing employment terms and conditions and we will maintain out commitment to public swimming, schools and swimming lessons.” Plans for the five centres include a new computerised till and booking systems, a discount card, and the potential for a young persons gym at Hartham Pool and Gym, Hertford.

Timetables and pricing at the leisure centres will remain in the council’s power to ensure facilities remain accessible to all.

External management has been in negotiation since June last year as the council sought to improve leisure facilities with better value for money.

ELCL will cost the council £200,000 less than the £980,000 it expected to spend this year, amounting to almost £1m savings throughout the five-year contract.

This money will be directed into frontline services including recycling and crime and disorder initiatives.

ELCL’s managing director, Simon Parkinson, said: “We’re very much looking forward to working with East Herts Council and the leisure facility staff to provide quality services at affordable prices.

“As a not-for-profit organisation our focus is to meet community needs and to make a difference in east Herts by injecting substantial investment into the leisure facilities.”