Agenda and minutes

Any apologies for absence that have been received will be noted at this point.

Mrs Apel welcomed members, officers and Mr S Quigley, former Chairman of this Committee.

Apologies for absence had been received from Caroline Neville, Mr H Potter and Mr J Ransley.

The Chairman will announce any urgent items that due to special circumstances are to be dealt with under the agenda item below relating to Late Items.

There were no urgent items.

Members and officers are reminded to make any declarations of disclosable pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests they may have in respect of matters on the agenda for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The procedure for submitting public questions in writing no later than 12:00 on Monday 18 January 2016 is available upon request to Member Services (the contact details for which appear on the front page of this agenda).

There were no public questions.

Further to minute 28 of 17 November 2015 the committee is requested to consider the process followed in undertaking a procurement exercise to test the market for future management of leisure services and make any comments to Cabinet and Council.

Mrs Apel introduced the item explaining that at its meeting on 17 November 2015 the Committee had requested to consider the process followed in undertaking the procurement exercise to test the market for future management of leisure services.

Mrs Keegan clarified her attendance in the capacity as Chair of the Leisure Task and Finish Group.

Mrs Keegan explained the process to date.

In April 2014 Cabinet agreed that an Options Appraisal be conducted to look at various management options for the Council’s leisure service. In September 2014 Cabinet reached a decision to test the market for leisure services provision and set up a Task and Finish Group (TFG) having considered the options to do nothing, set up a council run trust or work with a private sector partner. In addition to Mrs Keegan the TFG members are Mrs Knightley, Mrs Lintill, Mr McAra and Mr Oakley. The first TFG meeting in November 2014 agreed the terms of reference and established a reporting structure. In April 2015 following competitive dialogue the leisure services went out to open tender with 11 parties registering interest. Following an evaluation process the number was reduced to five who were invited to submit tenders. In August 2015 two preferred bidders were decided. The TFG and senior officers received presentations from both management teams and the final tenders have been submitted. Following a re-evaluation process the tenders were discussed at the December 2015 TFG along with the risks and benefits of outsourcing. The recommendation has been made to Council to outsource. The final decision of whether to outsource leisure services will be made by Council at its meeting on 26 January 2016. If Council decides in favour of outsourcing then Cabinet will decide its preferred contractor at a special meeting the same day.

Mrs Apel read the following question submitted by Mr Ransley.

Whilst there appear to be obvious financial benefits to outsourcing the operational management of our Leisure centre properties, I am conscious that Council will still be required to provide for capital replacement costs of the properties involved. I feel therefore that it would not be prudent for this Committee to ignore the more basic question as to whether this Council should still be involved in providing such facilities at all and whether disposal of such property should not be considered.

I am fully aware that in a historical context it was appropriate for Councils to invest residents monies in such facilities, many will remember bus journeys to and from school to enjoy swimming lessons which could only happen because Councils invested in such facilities, however we do not live in the past and in 2016 we all benefit from access to an extensive range of leisure facilities run by a dynamic and competitive leisure industry. This in my view is not an area of activity we as a Council need to be investing in the long term, outsourcing locks us into a long term agreement, especially now as there are so many more beneficial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

Consideration of any late items as follows:

a)    Items added to the agenda papers and made available for public inspection.

b)    Items which the Chairman has agreed should be taken as matters of urgency by reason of special circumstances reported at the meeting.

There were no late items.

There are no restricted items for consideration.

There were no restricted items for consideration.