Report of the Head of Leisure and Environmental Services

Overview and Scrutiny Committee received the report of the Head of Leisure and Environmental Services providing an overview of the council’s Leisure Centre Management Contract between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020.  The Head of Leisure and Environmental Services was joined by the relevant Contracts and Partnerships Manager and Sports and Physical Activity Manager.  Also in attendance were representatives from SLM/Everyone Active.

Following a brief overview by the Contracts and Partnerships Manager, SLM’s Contract Manager for Watford Central and Woodside outlined the constructive working relationship which existed between the leisure centre operator and the council.  Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, the leisure centres had enjoyed increasing attendance rates and continued success encouraging people from Watford’s different communities to move from being inactive to active.  SLM retained a strong focus on employing local people in its centres and engaging with West Herts College on its teaching programmes.  On-going work was also being undertaken to reduce the centres’ carbon footprints.

There followed a discussion about the impacts of Covid 19 on SLM’s operations.  SLM’s contract manager described the steps taken to ensure that the centres could continue to operate safely following lockdown.  These included, coronavirus risk assessments, enhanced cleaning rotas, increased signage and one-way systems, social distancing requirements, and lower occupancy ratios for activities.  There had been an inevitable detrimental impact on attendance and membership levels at both centres.  To offset this, considerable work had been undertaken to market the leisure centres and review programmes and improve outreach e.g., using online platforms for those who felt unable to return to the centres.  Public feedback on SLM’s initiatives to respond to the pandemic had been positive.

Both leisure centres had recently achieved “outstanding” Quest accreditation, the leisure industry benchmarking scheme, ranking them amongst the top 10 leisure facilities in the country.

During discussions following the presentation, the following issues were raised:

•           Attendance figures in October 2020 compared to October 2019 were 40% lower at Woodside and 17% lower at Watford Central.  This reflected the significant reduction in large scale events at Woodside and the different demographics between the centres, with larger numbers of older users at Woodside who had been more reluctant to return.

•           Around £30,000 had been spent per leisure centre site to make them Covid secure.  Cleaning costs had also increased by around 60%.  It was noted that customers had also been proactive in cleaning down equipment and surfaces after use.

•           Between 33-36% of members had failed to renew their membership following the first lockdown.

•           There had been excellent partnership working between SLM and council to ensure that Covid measures were appropriate and effective, including invaluable feedback from environmental health officers, contract officers and the relevant Portfolio Holder who had all inspected facilities and arrangements prior to reopening.

•           In order to encourage people to return, SLM had increased its use of social media highlighting areas of potential concern to customers such as cleaning regimes to encourage people to feel more comfortable using  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51