Issue - meetings

To consider a recommendation from the Joint meeting of the Finance & Economic and Culture & Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committees with regard to a request for one-off funding which has been received from Deepings Community Leisure Centre CIC in the sum of £850,000.

The report and appendices included within this agenda are those submitted for consideration at the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, scheduled to be held on 9 January 2024, which is after this agenda was published. Any recommendations or additional information arising from that meeting will be reported to this meeting of Full Council.

Council considered a report requesting a financial contribution for the Deepings Leisure Centre, taking into account recommendations from the Joint Finance and Economic & Culture and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny committees that met on 9 January 2024.

Council consented to extending the time for speeches from Councillors to 7 minutes.

Officers confirmed that advice had been received from the Building Control Manager that the whole of the building would need to be brought up to current Building Regulations if a heat source was to be introduced. The proposals before Members changed the heat source and did not introduce a new one, therefore paragraph 1.38 of the report was to be disregarded.

In moving the motion and additional recommendations, the Deputy Leader of the Council gave a presentation to Full Council on the proposal for a financial contribution, and highlighted the following points:

·         Deepings Leisure Centre was built in 1974. A promise for a new Leisure Centre was received in 2018, but the site was closed in July 2021 due to a lack of maintenance. A £10 million refurbishment was promised in December 2021, but this did not proceed, and the leisure was decommissioned in 2023 and handed back to Lincolnshire County Council (LCC).

·         The Deepings Leisure Centre Community Group was established in 2023, and there was political change at the Council.

·         Questions put by the Joint Meeting of the Finance & Economic and Culture & Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committees on 9 January 2024 included whether the proposal was desirable, legal, affordable, achievable, and value for money, as well as a request of knowing what the risks might be.

·         The Deepings Swimming Club were currently training in other venues in the local area as they could not use the pool at Deepings Leisure Centre (DLC).

·         The model for DLC was that it would be owned by the Deepings CIC, but there would be a service level agreement (SLA) with a third-party provider. It was expected that the CIC would be able to engage with a third-party provider upon receipt of monies from the Council. The third party would be able to carry out marketing, membership signups and preparatory work to ensure DLC was ready for all its users.

·         A formal agreement with the Deepings School would be required.

In formally seconding the motion and additional recommendations, the Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture highlighted the following points:

·         A number of suggestions were made during the Joint Meeting of the Finance & Economic and Culture & Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committees on 9 January 2024.

·         Some of the quotes included as part of the information within the report were obtained from individuals that had previously worked at DLC, but also at other Leisure Centres within Lincolnshire.

·         The proposal included working with community groups to provide a blended management model utilising trained and committed volunteers, with the potential for the Deepings School to be more involved than they had been previously.

During debate on the proposals, the following points were highlighted by Members:

·         The time spent on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75

To provide a recommendation to Council on a request for one-off funding which has been received from Deepings Community Leisure Centre CIC in the sum of £850,000.

The Deputy Leader of the Council provided the Committee with a presentation. The presentation included the history of Deepings Leisure Centre

The Deepings Leisure Centre Community Interest Company (CIC) had requested a one-off contribution of £850,000 towards refurbishment and reopening of the Deepings Leisure Centre.

The Committee were requested to focus the debate on the desirability, legality, affordability, achievability, value for money, risks and benefits.

The Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure congratulated the CIC for presenting a viable business plan and highlighted certain aspects of the Officer’s report.

The Chairman informed the Committee that there had been an amendment to 1.38 on page 12 of the report. The East Midlands Building Control Manager had stated that paragraph 1.38 be disregarded.

The Assistant Director of Culture and Leisure clarified that the East Midlands Building Control Manager had reconsidered the advice. The advice in paragraph 1.38 would stand should there be no existing heating at all within the building and a heating source be introduced but as a change of heating status, it was not necessary to bring the whole of the building up to current building standards.

(Councillor Murray Turner joined the meeting at 14:45)

Two Directors of the Deepings Leisure Centre Community Interest Company (CIC) provided their statement:

‘Good Afternoon and thank you for giving me the opportunity to present this request for funding towards the renovation and re-opening of The Deepings Leisure Centre and for your time this afternoon to give it your consideration. I have been an SKDC Councillor for Market & West Deepings for the past 5 years but today I am addressing you in my role as a Director of the Deeping Community Leisure Centre CIC. I have with me Martin Reilly who is the Director with responsibility for the refurbishment programme.

I don't intend to go through the years long history of how we came to this position as it is well documented. This request is looking for this council's support to reinstate leisure facilities to thousands of residents of The Deepings and beyond, facilities that they have enjoyed for over 50 years and which will bring parity with the other three towns of South  Kesteven. Throughout all our previous battles to retain facilities we have had the unending support of residents and this has never wavered. The Deepings is truly the least supported area within SKDC and we have watched over the years as one service or facility after another has been taken away. We have no arts centre or large events venue, our community centre is run by volunteers, we now run our own immensely successful library (again with volunteers), we looked after ourselves during the pandemic through volunteers, we recently updated a miserable little SKDC play park again with money raised by volunteers and so it goes on. We now wish to be given the means to run our leisure centre, again by volunteers on a not for profit basis.

I'd now like to comment on various aspects of the documents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6