Observer receives information on the bids in a brown envelope

The Observer was last week caught up in an apparent attempt to `nobble’ Active Stirling’s bid to retain Stirling Council’s sports and leisure contract.

A brown envelope arrived at our Upper Craigs office last Tuesday containing a three-page document said to be a briefing to staff about the outcome of the tender process from Active Stirling chief executive Andrew Bain.

In it, details of two bids are given. Active Stirling were planning to deliver the contract in partnership with Greenwich Leisure Ltd, an industrial provident society, according to the information.

It was suggested that surplus cash raised from the operation of the Stirling facilities could be reinvested across the GLL group rather than in the Stirling area.

The rival bid by Sports Leisure Management Ltd, part of Bridge of Allan-based Castle View Ltd, would have seen services run through a charitable trust and any surplus reinvested into the community across Stirling to enhance the provision of sport, etc.

However, on Monday Mr Bain contacted us to say he had never given a briefing to staff to that effect, adding:“Active Stirling’s proposed partnership with GLL would guarantee that all resources were kept in Stirling and managed by a local Stirling-based not-for-profit Charitable Trust (Active Stirling).

“The partnership with GLL which is a charitable leisure social enterprise operating in the public sector would also have brought significant investment to Stirling in terms of skills, experience, buying power and potential longer term capital investment.

“At no point was there a briefing that surpluses would be re-invested into GLL companies. All cash surpluses would be re-invested by the Stirling based not-for-profit Charitable Trust (Active Stirling) into the Stirling communities and programmes.”