Council will continue to top up pay
COUNCIL chiefs have agreed to continue topping up the wages of furloughed staff employed by a leisure centre operator as part of a new support package.
Taxpayers in Swansea have been contributing to the wages of employees of Freedom Leisure, which runs leisure centres on the council’s behalf, during the coronavirus lockdown.
And that 20% top-up arrangement will continue through to the end of September, cabinet has decided.
Other financial support worth up to £800,000 for Freedom Leisure and Plantasia operator Parkwood Leisure has also been agreed, covering the beginning of April to the end of July.
And if the leisure centres, including the flagship LC, and Plantasia have to remain closed after July 31 two senior council officers will have the power to extend this support for up to three months.
In addition up to £1 million will be required to underwrite costs relating to Freedom Leisure’s phased reopening of the seven Swansea leisure venues it runs, which it hopes to start from August. And £100,000 will be earmarked for Parkwood Leisure for the same purpose.
“This is quite a complex report,” said councillor Robert Francis-davies, cabinet member for investment, regeneration and tourism at yesterday’s cabinet meeting.
Leisure centre operators have had their income decimated since March, although Freedom Leisure has been eligible for Government furlough funding for staff up to 80% of their full salary.
The Labour-run council is keen to support these staff, many of whom it employed before Freedom Leisure was appointed in 2018.
The cabinet report said: “When a leisure and/or culture operator running services on behalf of a council begins to be no longer financially viable, the council faces a difficult choice.
“It can either allow the operator to become insolvent, potentially bringing any facilities owned by the council back in-house as a means of keeping them open, or it can choose to support the operator.”
The report said all 19 councils which have contracts with Freedom Leisure have “provided levels of support” during the closure period, but only two – including Swansea Council – had topped up wages.
It added that the council had not topped up the wages of furloughed Parkwood Leisure staff.
More details will emerge in the coming weeks about the phased reopening of these venues.
The expectation at this stage is that the popular LC waterpark would open for the October half-term.
Council leader Rob Stewart said a good network of leisure venues was important for the city.
“I very, very much welcome this move to support our partners,” he said.
It is not clear yet if the costs being picked up by the council could be reimbursed, in part at least, from the Welsh Government.
The report before cabinet said it was “explicitly assumed” that decisions by councils to reduce or waive charges due on reopening after the pandemic would not be claimed back from the Welsh Government.
Speaking at a scrutiny meeting this week, opposition leader, councillor Chris Holley, said he was worried that a precedent might be set by the council topping up the wages of a third party operator like Freedom Leisure.
Mr Stewart, who attended the scrutiny meeting, said: “If Freedom Leisure were not running these leisure centres we would be running them at a more costly rate.”
Freedom Leisure is a not-for-profit organisation which operates leisure venues for 19 councils, including Swansea.
From 2018 it has run the LC and six other leisure and sports venues in the city.
Council chiefs said this worked out cheaper for taxpayers, and brought new ideas and expertise.
Freedom Leisure’s parent organisation Wealden Leisure had an £83 million turnover in 2018-19, according to accounts from the mutuals public register.
Seven of its 4,914 employees earned between £80,000 and £139,999.