Issue - meetings

Report No:   CAB/WS/20/051

Portfolio Holders: Cllrs Jo Rayner and Sarah Broughton            

Lead Officer: Jill Korwin

RESOLVED:

That:

1.       the business case to create a £1,000,000 loan facility for Abbeycroft Leisure, funded from the Investing in our Growth Agenda Fund, be agreed, as set out in section 5 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/051;

2.       delegated authority be given to the Council’s Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Portfolio Holders for Resources and Performance, and Leisure, Culture and Community Hubs, and the Director, to agree the final details of the loan and enter into a loan agreement(s) with Abbeycroft Leisure; and 

3.       it be agreed for the Council’s Section 151 Officer to make the necessary changes to the Council’s prudential indicators as a result of recommendation 2. above.

The Cabinet considered this report, which sought approval for a business case to create a £1 million loan facility for Abbeycroft Leisure.

Due to COVID-19, the Council’s leisure provider partner, Abbeycroft Leisure was required on 20 March 2020, to close its leisure centres resulting in a loss of all its income (other than the management fee the Council paid). Abbeycroft furloughed the majority of its workforce, maintaining a skeleton team to oversee operations.

Councillor Joanna Rayner, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Community Hubs, including that, although following a recent Government announcement, leisure centres were expected to re-open within the next few weeks, the offer would be notably different with social distancing and hygiene measures put in place and some facilities would not be operational for some time yet.

The Council could choose not to support Abbeycroft with the provision of a £1 million loan facility; however, if a loan facility wasn’t available and should Abbeycroft then fail, the service would become the responsibility of the Council and a costly transfer and remobilisation exercise would have to take place.  Staff would have to be transferred to the Council, and the Council would not have the financial and operational benefits the Trust model provided. Since transferring leisure services to Abbeycroft (and previously Anglia Community Leisure that delivered services to Forest Heath District Council up to 2015) the costs of that service had reduced from over £1.8m (2009/10) to £275,000 in 2020/21.

Having considered the strategic, financial, economic and social and community cases, as detailed in the report, the Cabinet was fully supportive of providing a £1 million loan facility to Abbeycroft Leisure to enable them to remain viable, the terms of which were detailed in section 5 of the report.

RESOLVED:

That:

1.       the business case to create a £1,000,000 loan facility for Abbeycroft Leisure, funded from the Investing in our Growth Agenda Fund, be agreed, as set out in section 5 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/051;

2.       delegated authority be given to the Council’s Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Portfolio Holders for Resources and Performance, and Leisure, Culture and Community Hubs, and the Director, to agree the final details of the loan and enter into a loan agreement(s) with Abbeycroft Leisure; and 

3.       it be agreed for the Council’s Section 151 Officer to make the necessary changes to the Council’s prudential indicators as a result of recommendation 2. above.