Issue - meetings

Report number AFM143 by the Healthy Environment Portfolio Holder.

                                                                                                            (Enclosure)

DECISION:

(1)       The District Council enters into a Leisure Management Agreement, associated schedules and related documents for the provision of the management of its leisure services at Bourne, Deepings, Grantham and Stamford centres with Leisure in the Community (LITC), an industrial provident society (IPS) through a five year contract with the option of a break clause available to either party at the end of year three of the contract term.

(2)       The District Council grants leases or licences to the IPS for each centre for the term of the Management Agreement.

(3)       The District Council enters into a collateral warranty between Leisure Connection and the Council by which Leisure Connection will warrant the skill and care of the performance of the services and other obligations in the Management Agreement.

(4)       The District council agrees the IPS provides the management of the leisure centres  through a contract (related to the Management Agreement) between the IPS and Leisure Connection to transfer, for the venues set out below, giving Leisure Connection responsibility for performance of the Services.

(5)       The Cabinet delegate the negotiations on the terms of the documents required to implement the proposed management provision to the Corporate Head of Resources in agreement with the Portfolio holder for Resources and Assets in consultation with the Portfolio holder Healthy Environment and to the satisfaction of the Council’s Statutory Officers.

Considerations/reasons for decision:

(1)       Report AFM143 by the Portfolio Holder for Healthy Environment.

(2)       Comments made by the Corporate Head for Resources and Organisational Development at the meeting, specifically highlighting the importance of community benefit and noting that an IPS would have access to funding streams otherwise unavailable to the Council.

(3)       Comments made by Cabinet Members at the meeting noting the significant work done by the team.

(4)       Comments by Cabinet Members noting a need for the contract to include provision for facilities to be added or removed from the contract where necessary.

(5)       Comments from Cabinet Members noting that a five year contract would provide a degree of certainty which would be good for customers.

Other options considered:

          The other option considered was to extend the interim agreement with Leisure Connection for a period of time and proceed to a tender process which would incur significant cost. The proposal from Leisure Connection is more economically advantageous than the previous second lowest bid from the original tender procedure. The proposal was considered to provide value for money and is from the company which was selected from the competitive dialogue as preferred bidder to negotiate contractual terms.