Mid Sussex leisure centres can now reopen after support packed is agreed

After a long three-and-a-half hour debate district councillors finally agreed support so Mid Sussex’s three main leisure centres can reopen.
Ruth De Mierre, MSDC Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Councillor Jonathan Ash-Edwards, Leader of Mid Sussex District Council, Councillor Stephen Hillier, MSDC Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Cllr Judy Llewellyn-Burke, Deputy Leader of Mid Sussex District Council outside The Dolphin leisure centre in Haywards HeathRuth De Mierre, MSDC Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Councillor Jonathan Ash-Edwards, Leader of Mid Sussex District Council, Councillor Stephen Hillier, MSDC Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Cllr Judy Llewellyn-Burke, Deputy Leader of Mid Sussex District Council outside The Dolphin leisure centre in Haywards Heath
Ruth De Mierre, MSDC Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Councillor Jonathan Ash-Edwards, Leader of Mid Sussex District Council, Councillor Stephen Hillier, MSDC Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Cllr Judy Llewellyn-Burke, Deputy Leader of Mid Sussex District Council outside The Dolphin leisure centre in Haywards Heath

Normally Places Leisure pays a monthly management fee to Mid Sussex District Council for operating facilities at the Kings in East Grinstead, The Dolphin in Haywards Heath and The Triangle in Burgess Hill.

However the district council will have to pay around £1.1million for the period they were closed and on Wednesday night councillors agreed to also provide extra financial support so the leisure centres can reopen at the start of September.

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The total cost to the council could be around £2.5million, but council leader Jonathan Ash-Edwards explained how the deal negotiated with Places Leisure was flexible and they would go through the books month-by-month to reconcile the figures against the forecasts.

He said: “I think this deal strikes the right balance between two highly competing priorities; reopening the leisure centres for residents as quickly as possible and being careful with the financial exposure to the council at a time when we are running a multi-million pound deficit as a consequence of the pandemic.”

Although all councillors voiced their support for the agreement finally reached with Places Leisure, the meeting featured a number of testy exchanges during discussion of three Lib Dem amendments, all of which were rejected.

The first involved Haywards Heath’s Clair Hall, which is being removed from the contract with Places Leisure. The amendment was asking for assurances that no steps to permanently close it would be taken unless residents could be satisfied that like-for-like facilities could be made available.

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The second asked for a business case to be prepared for taking all leisure centres back in-house  and the third requested the three-month review included a representative from all the council’s political groups.

Lib Dem speakers argued that the amendments were not intended to frustrate the reopening of the leisure centres, but several Conservatives disagreed, describing them as ‘trying to lead us down rabbit holes’ and a ‘waste of time’.

Alison Bennett, leader of the Lib Dem group, argued their amendments ‘strengthened the proposals’, adding: “They give greater assurance to the public that taxpayers’ money is being spent wisely and with robust oversight and decisions are being taken in the long-term interests of the district, not just to deal with the immediate problems before us.”

The meeting heard that Clair Hall had been making a significant loss for some time  and was currently ‘unviable to operate in a socially distanced way’.

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Robert Eggleston (LDem, Burgess Hill Meeds) felt the report made it look like the community hall was being ‘sacrificed’. He said: “The direction of travel is abundantly clear and that is that Clair Hall is going to be chucked under a bus.”

The Lib Dems also wanted the council to undertake a full review of available community facilities across both Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill and support the needs of user groups in the future.

Cllr Ash-Edwards pointed out that work on a community buildings strategy was already underway by officers. He also described how the review would see proposed decisions come back through the council’s formal governance arrangements.

Meanwhile John Belsey, cabinet member for environment and service delivery, added: “This is not the time and place ot make pronouncements and proposals about other community facilities in Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill and in particular Clair Hall.

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On the business case, Sue Hatton (LDem, Hassocks) felt it would give councillors a comparison of the benefits and disadvantages between taking services in-house or leaving them with Places Leisure.

Norman Webster, cabinet member for community, said bringing services back in-house would be an ‘awful’ result for residents. He added: “We just need to get on and concentrate on the key priorities which is getting the leisure centres open.”

Several Lib Dems expressed frustration that they were being portrayed as wanting to bring services back in-house, as they were merely asking for a business case to be put together as part of ‘scenario planning’.

Cllr Ash-Edwards called it a ‘wrecking amendment’, saying it would mean ‘more uncertainty, more dither, more delay and reopening put at risk’.

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On the third amendments, the Lib Dems argued it was reasonable to ask that other members be involved in the three-month review.

But Gary Marsh (Con, Ardingly and Balcombe) said: “In these three amendments we have gone from jester and sound-bite politics via vanity and madness politics to a rather pathetic politics.”

Meanwhile Linda Stockwell (Con, High Weald) suggested the third amendment was ‘superfluous’ as any further decisions would go through the council’s scrutiny process, while Robert Salisbury (Con, Cuckfield) felt this was trying to reinvent ‘our very sound governance processes’.

After the meeting, Steve Warriner, Places Leisure area manager, said: “We’re delighted that The Dolphin, Kings Centre and The Triangle will be re-opening on 1 September and we look forward to welcoming customers back to our gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools.

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“You will be able to find details of our opening times, customer FAQs and a list of all our available activities on our website at www.placesleisure.org/reopening/midsussex.”

As customers return to the leisure centres, they will notice lots of new measures in place to keep them, and leisure centre staff, safe. Signage will be in place to help people follow social distancing, there will be hand sanitising and cleaning stations, the number of people taking part in each activity will be reduced and cleaning regimes will be greatly enhanced.

Customers will be asked to book all activities in advance via the Places Locker app or the Places Leisure website. There will be a 15-30 minute changeover period between each session to allow customers time to exit their activity safely and Places Leisure staff to clean the facilities.

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