Contract for Bexhill’s leisure facilities renewed

Rother District Council has renewed its contract for leisure facilities in Bexhill.
Bexhill Leisure Centre, operated by Freedom LeisureBexhill Leisure Centre, operated by Freedom Leisure
Bexhill Leisure Centre, operated by Freedom Leisure

On Monday (December 14), cabinet members agreed to sign a new three-year contract with Freedom Leisure, a not-for-profit group which runs the Bexhill Leisure Centre and Bexhill Pool.

Unusually, the new contract commits the council to giving Freedom Leisure up to £130,000 over its first six months, in an effort to ensure the group survives the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

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The council has already been providing funding to the group for most of the past year, as it has been required to close its facilities as a result of government restrictions.

The council hopes to later recoup this money through a profit sharing agreement, which would kick in if and when the leisure facilities can reopen and begin bringing in money.

Cllr Jay Brewerton, cabinet member for health, wellbeing and inclusion, said: “There has been great public concern about the possible closure of our leisure facilities in Rother. 

“I want to reassure the public that RDC has endeavoured to ensure that these will remain open for the foreseeable future.”

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She added: “I thank all of our residents and members and other users of our leisure centres for their patience and support in what we all know has been a very trying and challenging time. 

“Freedom Leisure is set-up as a not-for-profit organisation, which means all financial gains are reinvested back into leisure centres, enabling us to improve and renew our facilities regularly.”

As part of the new contract, the council is to invest up to £140,000 in refurbishment and repairs to the leisure centre building.

The cost had not been unexpected, as earlier this year cabinet members formally suspended plans to replace Bexhill Leisure Centre with a larger, more modern facility and pursue a more modest refurbishment scheme instead.

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The original leisure centre project, which had been expected to cost as much as £15m, would have formed part of the wider redevelopment of the former Bexhill High School site in Down Road.

Speaking on Monday, council leader Doug Oliver said: “I think the important thing to note is, I believe, some 60 per cent of leisure centres throughout the country are in this sort of aged stock. 

“A lot of them are closing, a lot of them are going forward.  Those that were taken in house have been closed by local authorities.

“We are doing everything possible here to keep this one operating until such time when we are able to assess what the longer term plan is.”  

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However, concerns around the future of the project were raised by Conservative councillor John Barnes. 

Cllr Barnes said: “We do know that we have high levels of deprivation in certain parts of our community so these facilities seem to me to be absolutely essential. That is why I regret that we keep kicking the can down the road. We know these facilities are out of date.

“The very fact we are going to spend a large sum of money on rehabilitating them is welcome, but at the end of the day [there is] no commitment going forward. We have £1.5m ringfenced for leisure facilities, which we are sitting on, and no plan beyond what is going to happen in three years’ time. 

“We really do need to actually put this at the centre of our programme and realise that this is an absolutely important project and we need certainty in going forward.” 

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Cabinet members defended the decision, arguing that it would be inappropriate to move ahead with such a large investment during such uncertain times.

Cllr Christine Bayliss (Lab) said: “I absolutely support this as our commitment to ensuring the continuation of leisure centre facilities and leisure pool facilities in Bexhill for the short term

“This allows us the time to have a proper look at the post-covid economy and how that plays out in terms of the investment.

“I think the project we had been asked to sign up to shortly after the election was somewhere in the region of £10m. Yes, there is £1.5m from the s106 money, but that also requires an awful lot of investment. 

“It would just be pure craziness at this juncture and point in time to embark on that, when we don’t know what the future is going to hold.”

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