Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing declared he had a register of interest as a Director of LeisureSK Ltd.

The Deputy Chief Executive confirmed this agenda item did not conflict with LeisureSK Ltd and this was a Council driven initiative, therefore a declaration of interest was not required.

The Deputy Leader of the Council presented the report which had been developed in response to the creation of a Leisure Investment Reserve was approved by the Governance and Audit Committee on 23 July 2025.

It was recognised that current maintenance funding was primarily focused on urgent works and limited funding was available to support the more cosmetic and decorative works.

Customer perception when using facilities can lead to negative feedback due to the limited investment in those cosmetic and decorative elements.

To enhance the customer experience and meet the objectives of the reserve, external consultants had been engaged to provide a summary of proposed investment based on the condition surveys with a clear focus on cosmetic and decorative works.

Following the consultants site survey, a specification of works would be developed to prioritise the allocation of the £500,000 reserve across the four main leisure assets.

Members were pleased to see the fund had been initiated.

A query was raised on why external consultants would provide a summary of proposed investment and not a Council employee, it was further questioned how much an external consultant would cost.

The Deputy Chief Executive clarified the external consultants were the same consultants who provided condition surveys of the assets and therefore had good understanding of each asset. The consultants would review the assets professionally and begin to allocate where the £500,00 would be prioritised across the four locations.

The cost of the external consultants was around £5-6000 and would be taken out of the property services budget.

The report outlined usage figures, it was questioned how the figures were measured.

The Assistant Director of Culture, Leisure and Place confirmed that LeisureSK Ltd utilised a dedicated customer management system where visitors would be checked in on arrival. It was acknowledged the system would not record every visitor to the centre but would uplift figures in relation to other services. For example, a badminton court booking would record two visitors.

ACTION: For the Assistant Director of Culture, Leisure and Place to provide an update on how attendance figures were measured at the Stadium in Grantham.

One Member noted that the majority of complaints from visitors at Stamford leisure center related to the changing areas only.

It was highlighted that several complaints received from all centers related to changing room facilities and it was hoped the £500,000 would be utilised in updating all changing rooms, following the external consultants report.

One Member noted that upgrades would related to refurbishment rather than re-decoration.

It was likely the £500,000 may not be sufficient to upgrade all of the assets. The Committee may wish to recommended to Cabinet in future that further allocations be made to the reserve during budget setting.

The Committee:

1. Considered the proposed criteria for the allocation of the £500k from the Leisure Investment Reserve.

2. The Committee agreed to receive a further update at the meeting of the 18th November 2025 regarding the proposed work programme.