Cash-starved pools, gyms and libraries ‘sunk’ by shutdown
SWIMMING pools, sports centres, libraries and other community facilities are on the brink of closure because of the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus shutdown.
Sport and leisure trusts, which operate council centres, have warned they are facing collapse.
A letter sent to council leaders – leaked to the Mail – warns that 4,500 jobs are on the line and children and adults will lose vital facilities unless an urgent cash injection is provided by the Scottish Government or councils.
It also claims that due to financial concerns many facilities are likely to stay closed after being cleared to open.
In the letter, sent to Cosla president Alison Evison, Community Leisure Scotland chairman Robin Strang says: ‘Understanding what facilities and services are at risk is difficult to quantify at this time due to ongoing consideration of when they can reopen, however I want to ensure it is clear that without strategic intervention, significant numbers of facilities and services (swimming pools, outdoor pitches, libraries, town halls) – probably well over a hundred – will close.
‘To give you a more specific example, one of our members has confirmed that if they fail to receive financial support, there is a very real prospect that within
‘Some trusts could go bust in weeks’
the next 6-8 months the charity would fold. The result would be that the majority of children in the local authority would not be taught to swim, either via the curriculum or via the private lesson programme the trust operates. In addition, any school with a pool would have the lifeguards removed, meaning they could not operate.’
He cites a members’ survey that found more than one in three charitable trusts that operate the facilities say they will be unviable by the end of the year – rising to 70 per cent within the next year.
In Scotland, 27 charitable trusts operate culture and leisure facilities on behalf of councils, including Edinburgh Leisure and Glasgow Life.
The letter warns the closure of facilities due to coronavirus has resulted in a loss of income which ‘has placed many trusts in a financially perilous position, with the very existence of many at imminent threat’.
It says 450 staff have lost their job or planned for redundancy, while more than 4,500 jobs are at risk, with those aged 18-34 said to be most affected.
The letter also warns that trusts are only planning to open a third of facilities when permitted to reopen, primarily due to financial viability concerns.
A senior source in the culture and leisure trust sector said: ‘This is really serious. We are talking about swimming pools, football pitches and libraries closing across most of the country and thousands of jobs going. Some trusts could actually go bust in the next few weeks. The actual collapse of leisure and culture services across Scotland is what’s at stake here.
‘Without a serious intervention from either Cosla or the Scottish Government, many trusts won’t have any other choice.
‘In some parts of the country it means no more swimming lessons for children, at all. The whole point of having charitable trusts is that we can provide services that are accessible to everyone by cross-subsidising
‘Communities will be all the poorer’
services that wouldn’t otherwise be financially viable with any income we can generate. It will be people in the most deprived communities who are hurt by this, not those who can just join a Pure Gym or David Lloyd.’
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: ‘Unless the Scottish Government takes action, we are going to see culture and sport completely hollowed out. These facilities are not struggling because of any mistakes of their own. The Scottish Government rightly ordered them to close to help contain the pandemic but that also means the Scottish Government have a duty to make sure these institutions are still standing as we emerge out of the other side of the virus crisis.
‘Our communities will be all the poorer if we lose access to these facilities.’
A Cosla spokesman said the letter was confidential, adding: ‘We will respond to it in person rather than via the media’.
The Scottish Government said it was in ‘ongoing discussions with Cosla on how we can best deploy further (Barnett formula) consequentials for local government and also to implement a lost income scheme to provide additional financial support for some of the lost income from sales, fees and charges similar to that which has been announced for councils in England’.
A spokesman added: ‘Details of the scheme are still being worked up and critically we are still awaiting further information from the UK Government on what funding we are allocated for the lost income scheme.