Agenda item

To receive an update on the Leisure Services.

The Panel received a report which provided a summary of the current position regarding the provision of leisure management within Haringey and the steps being taken to enhance that provision.

Before the report was introduced, the Chair advised the following:

Cabinet is due to consider a decision on Leisure Management at their meeting on Tuesday 5^th of December and the papers for the Cabinet meeting are being published later this evening.

In accordance with the scrutiny procedure rules and access to information rules, we will continue to consider the report at hand and raise questions/ issues/ concerns on the information in this report. Please can it be noted that the contents of the Cabinet report will not be referred to in responses as the report is deemed an officer report with recommendations and no decision has been made by cabinet on this report.

Advice has been provided by Democratic services, supported by Legal services, that this is the appropriate way forward as Scrutiny are considering the report in line with Constitution provision at part 4 section G and paragraph 9.1, following the OSC meeting in July. This is not a pre-call in and also not a policy review contained in the work programme to allow the report to be shared with Scrutiny and discussed at a public meeting prior to consideration by Cabinet.  

In view of this being a key service area which has been of considerable concern to us as a Committee, I have agreed with Democratic services that the Committee officer will take a close note of the matters raised in the discussion and I will review these notes and compare to the content of the Cabinet report and then further attend Cabinet to raise any outstanding issues /concerns from this committee meeting not addressed in the report.

The report was introduced by Cllr Emily Arkell, Cabinet Member for Culture Communities and Leisure. Also present for this item were Mark Stevens, AD for Direct Services & Simon Farrow, Head of parks and Leisure. Cllr Arkell introduced the report as set out in the agenda pack at pages 51 to 57. The following arose in discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Panel outlined the degree of frustration felt by the local community in the amount of time that the swimming pool at Tottenham Green Leisure Centre had been closed. A member of the Panel commented that there were a large number of marginalised residents in and around Seven Sisters and that its closure had a disproportionate impact on a range of different groups. Of particular concerns was children with autism, as swimming was a vital lifesaving skill. The Panel member sought assurances around when the pool would be open.  In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged the frustrations felt by residents and advised that the Council had offered residents the option of using Park Road leisure centre in Hornsey, but it was understood that this was not an option for everyone. Residents were also able to use Fusion managed pool facilities in other boroughs. The Cabinet Member set out that there was a 12 month period, following the Cabinet decision next week, to ensure that future provision was as good as it could be. The Panel were advised that it was envisaged that the pool at Tottenham Green would be open in the new year. The reason it had taken so long was because of the difficulties in identifying what the problem was and then rectifying it.

b.    The Panel expressed a level of frustration with the fact that they were unable to scrutinise the decision being taken by Cabinet next week and requested that a subsequent update be brought to a future meeting.  (Action: Clerk).

c.    The Chair sought assurances around the ability of residents to have democratic oversight on how future leisure services were provided. The Chair also commented that it was important that Councillors were allowed to scrutinise the decision being made, and that he did not want to see a repeat of the situation whereby, even the recommendations of the Cabinet report were exempt for reasons of commercial confidentiality. In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged these concerns and provided assurances that the service had been examining what other boroughs were doing and how democratic accountability can be a part of any future service provision. Officers reiterated that they agreed that this was an important consideration going forwards, and gave assurances that, subject to which of the five options Cabinet approved, that it would form part of the future service offer.

d.    The Panel commented that primary schools had targets for teaching Year 5 & Year 6 pupils to swim, and that given the current funding crisis in many schools, they simply did not have the money to provide coaches to take children swimming at other pools. The Cabinet Member advised that, in addition to offering alternative swimming venues, the Council was also looking at providing top-up swimming lessons during summer holidays, for pupils who missed out.

e.    The Panel sought clarification about what kind of information the Council had sought from Fusion that was not forthcoming, as referred to in the report. In response, officers advised that this related to staffing details.

f.     The Panel sought assurances about whether there would be any additional oversight and contract monitoring put in place over the 12 month notice period.  In response, officers advised that they expected that Fusion would fully provide all of the services that they were contractually obliged to over the 12 month notice period, and that the Council would enforce the contract on that basis.

g.    The Panel sought assurances around whether, as one of the possible five options, there were leisure providers out there in the market that could viably take over the contract.  In response, officers acknowledged that leisure operators had a very difficult period over Covid, with being forced to close. In addition to this, they had also been badly impacted by rising energy costs and the cost of living crisis.  By way of example, it was noted that the energy costs for Haringey went up from £900k to £2.2m for leisure facilities. Officers commented that some operators had made their way through the crisis better than others, often with a greater level of support from the local authority. Officers advised that GLL were due to take over leisure provision in Enfield next week. It was suggested that there was still a viable market out there and that a number of boroughs were tendering contracts of between 2-5 years.

h.    In response to a question, officers provided assurances that the Cabinet report did not contain any exempt information and that all of it would be publically accessible. The report would be ready later that evening when published as part of the Cabinet agenda papers.

i.      The Panel requested that the regular updates that were provided to members and residents about developments at Tottenham Green were reinstated and that regular comms. messages went out. In response, the Cabinet Member clarified that these were sent out from the previous lead members that held her portfolio. The Panel were advised that there had been a lull in communications because there was not much to update people on.  The updates were ongoing and the most recent one was sent out on Friday, which provided an update on the successful installation of the high voltage electrical system. Officers clarified that the high voltage distribution board had to be specially designed for the site, which caused delays and then the specialist works had to be tendered, which also took time.

RESOLVED

Noted