COVID rules in leisure are ‘unsustainable’
Live Active’s chief executive has said operating under social distancing regulations is unsustainable.
Paul Cromwell also highlighted the complex nature of managing a raft of varying COVID restrictions in the leisure sector.
Mr Cromwell was providing an update on Live Active to councillors as one of Perth and Kinross Council’s armslength organisations. He gave a verbal report to PKC’s scrutiny committee on Wednesday, May 12.
While welcoming the further easing of restrictions on Monday, May 17, Mr Cromwell said: “Operating under any tier restrictions with the requirements of social distancing does not provide a venue and service delivery model that is sustainable.
He added: “And obviously this challenge comes at a time when it has never been more necessary to support public health and wellbeing as we emerge from this pandemic over the next couple of years.”
Mr Cromwell said COVID restrictions in the leisure sector were “particularly complex”.
He told councillors: “Currently adults can have a game of badminton indoors but not a game of squash. An adult can attend a fitness gym but not a fitness class. Under 18s can play indoor fiveaside but over 18s can’t.”
He added: “Just to be clear I am not in any way criticising the approach or the rationale of these arrangements.
“But I do hope it provides a bit of an understanding not only of the volume of the range of guidance we need to consider but also the varying complexities of each activity.”
And there is further guidance for Live Active to adhere to within schools.
Mr Cromwell said: “In addition, where we deliver services from a school premises such as the community campuses, there is a distinct educational guidance which also needs to be considered and followed.”
Councillors were told the implication of this was services had to be reopened gradually in order to align with government guidance.
Mr Cromwell said Live Active had invested heavily in making its facilities COVID safe but, in response to questioning from Perth City Centre SNP councillor Andrew Parrott, confirmed operating within COVID guidelines was a “loss leader”.
The leisure chief told councillors: “The costs of running a venue are fairly fixed and in fact to make them COVID secure your staffing levels need to be reasonably high, they have to increase ventilation which is a significantly onerous issue particularly where you have pool halls and obviously your programme is completely extended by the fact that you have to socially distance.
“While we are under tier restrictions we are in a short-term position where we are operating at almost minimal levels of income compared to our almost normal levels of expenditure.”
• Pool reopening “on schedule” - see