Agenda and minutes

To issue a welcome to those present, and to confirm if there are any apologies for absence.

The Chair welcomed those present.

Apologies were received from Cllr Barton – Cllr Halford substituted.

Apologies were received from Cllr Aldred – Cllr Dr Moore substituted.

Apologies were received from Cllr Dave.  Cllr Rae Bhatia substituted.

Apologies were received from Cllr Joshi.

Members will be asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

 The Chair noted that on the advice of the Monitoring Officer, if Councillors were members of leisure centres that were impacted by the proposal, they should declare it, but would not need to leave the meeting.

The Chair, Cllr Zaman, declared that he was a member of Braunstone Leisure Centre that was not affected by the proposals.

Cllr Haq declared that he was a member of Evington Leisure Centre.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report on the Leisure Centre Needs Assessment (LCNA), Phase 3 Proposals and Public Consultation.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report on the Leisure Centre Needs Assessment (LCNA), Phase 3 Proposals and Public consultation.

The Assistant City Mayor for Health, Culture, Libraries and Community Centres introduced the report.

Key Points included:

•         Primary and secondary research had been carried out, and a set of proposals had been produced.

•         One of these had been investment in Leisure Leys Centre.  The building was in need of improvement, the gym needed improving, as did the front of the building, as people were sometimes queuing in the rain.

•         The proximity of Beaumont Leys library to the leisure centre suggested that it could be more economically viable to have the library as part of the leisure centre, which would leave the library as a building that could be used for other things.

•         Leicester Leys remained a popular leisure facility. The proposed investment in Leicester Leys would improve the facility and increase its appeal as a leisure  destination.

•         Regarding the future of New Parks Leisure Centre, data had shown that it was an under-used pool, and for every visit, the subsidy from the city taxpayer was around £6, whereas for the other leisure centres it was around £1 or less.

•         Over 65% of Active Leicester users from the western ward use of Braunstone Leisure Centre and Leicester Leys as their primary leisure centre.

•         If £4m was invested in New Parks Leisure Centre, around £3m would need to go into addressing maintenance and infrastructure issues such as the roof, electrics and the pool pump/plant, and therefore the customer would not see the benefit. The investment would address the maintenance of the building but not address the problems with usage and performance of the centre.

•         It was noted that swimming was only a part of what the leisure centre offered. It was hoped to increase the ‘dry’ activities such as group exercise and Livewell by utilising and programme these activities in other community locations within New Parks.

•         The squash club would need to use Leicester Leys should New Parks leisure centre close.  However, data showed that residents of New Parks did not generally use the squash club.  The situation would be similar with regards to canoeing, which could also be moved to Beaumont Leys.

•         With regard to school swimming, five schools currently used the New Parks pool.  Of these two were neared to Beaumont Leys, so would have a better experience using Beaumont Leys pool should New Parks pool close.  The remaining three had been engaged with, they currently walked to New Parks, but if they had transport, it would take the same amount of time to use a different pool, so their timetable would not be disturbed in the event of New Parks pool closing.  It was acknowledged that schools had difficult budgets, but financial assistance would be provided to support schools to cover the cost of transport.

•         Meetings had been conducted with the public, and the consultation was live online.  Capacity would be looked at in terms of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 233.