New firm sought for sports sites

A charity trust could be removed from running the town’s sports facilities as council bosses seek to bring in new investment.

The Ashford Leisure Trust has been running the Stour Centre and other council facilities, including the Julie Rose Stadium and Spearpoint pavilion in Kennington.

But Ashford Borough Council stripped the trust of its role running the stadium and the Conningbrook Lakes in March 2016, after two years of deadlock in contract talks. It believed a larger sports contractor was needed in order to build bigger facilities and drive up revenue, and also to deliver a proposed multimillion-pound second phase of redevelopment at the Stour Centre.

There had been a 30-day rolling contract in place between the trust and the council since March 2014, but the council wanted to hand over the facilities to Serco.

But the council had to do a U-turn in July last year because Serco did not offer a comparable pension to staff who were part of the Kent Pension Scheme.

Now, council chief executive Tracey Kerly says the authority is ready to press ahead and find a new provider. At the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, she said: “We are procuring a new operator, and hope that they will bring in more investment, not just for the Stour Centre, but also for facilities like Conningbrook Lakes.”

The council says more details about the future of the Stour Centre will be revealed soon.