Agenda item

That Cabinet:

a)       remove the capital allocation of £5.5m to build a new swimming facility at Southwell Leisure Centre;

b)       retain the £5.5m in the Council’s Capital Programme to be re-allocated to other health and wellbeing schemes in the District;

c)        give delegated authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Deputy Chief Executive, the Assistant Director - Legal & Democratic Services and the Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Performance & Finance to negotiate the surrender of the current lease with Southwell Leisure Centre Trust;

d)       as consideration for the surrender of the lease, approve a capital budget of £247,000 to be paid to Southwell Leisure Centre Trust for repairs to the current main pool and a further £250,000 as a contribution to essential works to the dry side at the Leisure Centre. The total of £497,000 to be funded from the existing remedial works scheme currently in the Capital Programme, with the remaining balance of £75,855 to be removed from the Capital Programme. Any negotiated terms outside of these financial parameters be brought back to Cabinet for approval;

e)       note the £25,000 budget, for design and feasibility of a new leisure facility, approved by Cabinet on 19 December has not been expended to date and will be returned to the Capital Feasibility reserve on termination of the lease; and

f)         note that the £12,300 to be funded from the Change Management Reserve for the engineered solution to safeguard the structure of the current main pool has not been expended and will be retained in the Change Management Reserve on termination of the lease.

The Director – Resources / Deputy Chief Executive presented a report which provided an update to the Cabinet following the previous decision to build a new swimming facility at Southwell Leisure Centre. The decision taken on 19 December 2023 to approve, in principle, the option of developing a new swimming facility on land adjacent to the current leisure centre, was conditional on reaching an agreement with the current landowners to transfer the ownership of the land to the District Council.

It was reported that securing agreement from the Southwell Leisure Centre Trust had been delayed and complicated by two main factors. Firstly, the Trust’s persistence in wanting the District Council to meet the cost of repairing the existing pool as well as providing a new one, and secondly the exclusion of the six District Council representatives on the Trust from participating in decision-making, so unable to decide to progress the freehold transfer of its land.

The report set out the recent indication of support from the Trust, but this had arrived extremely late and with some resistance and reluctance. Given that reluctance and the ongoing community opposition, the report recommended the removal of the £5.5m allocated in the Capital Programme for developing a new swimming facility at Southwell Leisure Centre be reallocated to other projects in the District.

In addition, the report referred to the quote of £247,000 obtained by the Trust to repair the existing main pool. Therefore, it was also proposed that the District Council pay this sum to the Trust in order to carry out the repairs. There was also a proposal to pay an additional £250,000 to the Trust as a contribution to the essential works which were required to the dry side.

AGREED      (with 8 votes for and 1 abstention) that Cabinet:

a)            remove the capital allocation of £5.5m to build a new swimming facility at Southwell Leisure Centre;

b)            retain the £5.5m in the Council’s Capital Programme to be re-allocated to other health and wellbeing schemes in the District;

c)             give delegated authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Deputy Chief Executive, the Assistant Director - Legal & Democratic Services and the Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Performance & Finance to negotiate the surrender of the current lease with Southwell Leisure Centre Trust;

d)            as consideration for the surrender of the lease, approve a capital budget of £247,000 to be paid to Southwell Leisure Centre Trust for repairs to the current main pool and a further £250,000 as a contribution to essential works to the dry side at the Leisure Centre. The total of £497,000 to be funded from the existing remedial works scheme currently in the Capital Programme, with the remaining balance of £75,855 to be removed from the Capital Programme. Any negotiated terms outside of these financial parameters be brought back to Cabinet for approval;

e)            note the £25,000 budget, for design and feasibility of a new leisure facility, approved by Cabinet on 19 December has not been expended to date and will be returned to the Capital Feasibility reserve on termination of the lease; and

f)              note that the £12,300 to be funded from the Change Management Reserve for the engineered solution to safeguard the structure of the current main pool has not been expended and will be retained in the Change Management Reserve on termination of the lease.

Reasons for Decision:

The £5.5m allocated to the capital programme on 19 December 2023 to develop a new swimming facility at Southwell Leisure Centre was conditional on the Council agreeing the transfer of land to the Council from the Trust and the Town Council.  Nearly 5 months on from the decision, the transfer of land has not been resolved. 

To re-instate the budgets in the Capital Programme, the Capital Feasibility Reserve and the Change Management Reserve.

Options Considered:

One alternative is to progress the scheme by preparing a submission for the Charity Commission; the reasons for not doing this are set out at paragraph 2.6 of the report.

Another alternative is to continue with the current lease arrangement, either leaving the pool closed for the long-term or repairing it; the reason for not doing this is set out in the report at paragraph 2.7 of the report.

A final alternative of last resort would be to close the leisure centre, but this is not considered to be in the best interests of the residents and users of the leisure centre, or the staff working there.