Reopening may be too late for many key leisure facilities
Hpeterborough crisis shows government rescue package will be vital to saving thousands of public centres, pools and gyms
The algae that have turned the water green at Peterborough’s iconic old lido tell their own story. A “closed” sign still hangs over a facility that first welcomed swimmers in 1936 and, although outdoor pools were permitted to reopen earlier this month and gyms, indoor pools and leisure centres will theoretically follow on Saturday, an alarming picture is emerging countrywide.
What Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden called “the news millions across the country have been waiting for” actually feels more like a postcode lottery, and the biggest chasm would appear to be between those private operators who have been able to access government “interruption” and “bounceback” loans, and public leisure facilities operated on behalf of councils.
Research by Community Leisure UK, whose members employ 100,000 staff, has found that more than a third of public leisure centres and gyms will be unable to reopen when lockdown rules are eased and, without a dedicated rescue package from central government, that 2,800 leisure centres will be extinct by Christmas.
The great frustration in Peterborough is that it would cost only £1million-£1.5million over the next 18 months to safeguard a portfolio of services, from gyms, leisure centres and the lido to theatres, museums and libraries, which has been run with success by Vivacity, a
charitable not-for-profit organisation, since 2010.
Vivacity employs 510 staff, had 7,000 gym users and provided 13,625 monthly swimming lessons across the community, but handed its contract back to the local council last month amid projected lost revenues of £8.5 million. All but around 10 staff remain furloughed and, while Peterborough City Council says that no decision has been taken on when or if facilities might reopen, the fear surrounding what might happen next is obvious.
Stewart Francis, Vivacity’s chair of trustees, said that there had been a “perfect financial storm” of the coronavirus lockdown, meaning that all services had to be closed at a
time when councils were grappling with budget cuts. He said that his trustees could not see any viable future without immediate support.
“There would be significant costs of reopening and we are predicting a major loss of income as we implement social distancing and reduced capacities,” he said.
Vivacity had forecast a 50 per cent reduction in user capacity to meet social distancing guidelines and between one and two years before a full recovery could be made. It follows a decade in which it had grown revenues by 177 per cent despite a 70 per cent reduction in council funding and had last year welcomed 1.8 million visitors to its facilities.
Community Leisure UK has launched a #saveleisure campaign with Ukactive, which represents 7,000 gyms from the private and public sectors. Following the Government’s arts bail out of £1.6billion, they are asking for a ring-fenced fund of £773 million.
Francis stressed that Vivacity had “not collapsed” and had been delivering £60 million of social value to Peterborough before Covid-19 struck. He is also adamant that all the services and community groups that Vivacity was providing, especially to some of the most disadvantaged areas, were critical.
“I’m devastated,” he said. “This is not an add-on. We are at the front line and if these facilities are not operating it will have an extremely adverse impact on people’s lives.
“We have proved that these services are viable and successful in normal times. We just needed some help through this period.”
A government spokesman said that it had delivered a £4.3billion package of support during the pandemic to local government and that an additional £500million support package had been announced earlier this month.
A scheme to compensate for income that local authorities usually generated independently was also announced. This will mean that all relevant losses, over and above the first five per cent of planned income from sales, fees and charges, will be compensated for at a rate of 75p in every pound.