Swindon Labour Group to Oppose 99 Year Leases in Leisure Sell-Off

Following the deadline for the public consultation on the Council’s proposed leisure privatisation, which expired on the 3rd March, the Labour Group have declared that they will not support the option of handing over the Council’s leisure facilities to a private provider on 99 year leases. Furthermore, they will only consider leases of no more than 25 years, with break clauses to review the service during the length of the lease.

Following the deadline for the public consultation on the Council’s proposed leisure privatisation, which expired on the 3rd March, the Labour Group have declared that they will not support the option of handing over the Council’s leisure facilities to a private provider on 99 year leases. Furthermore, they will only consider leases of no more than 25 years, with break clauses to review the service during the length of the lease.

The Labour Group made their position clear to the Conservative administration at a cross-party Leisure & Culture Cabinet Member Advisory Group Meeting on Monday.

The Labour Group are also proposing that:

  • Fully constituted community groups are considered to run Swindon Council’s community leisure facilities if they can demonstrate that they can run the facilities without a subsidy from Swindon Council
  • That the leisure facilities in parished areas- including the Haydon Centre and the Highworth Recreation Centre- are offered to their respective Parish and Town Councils if they can run these facilities without a subsidy being required from Swindon Council
  • That any contract must include the guarantee that the assets can only be used for leisure, sport and culture in the future

The Labour Group’s Shadow Lead for Leisure & Culture, Councillor Junab Ali, said:

“The Labour Group has considered the responses that we have received from members of the public, as well as industry experts and the research that has been done by the Council’s leisure officers. Throughout the public consultation period the Labour Group was clear that we would review the feedback received from the consultation and that we wanted to work with the Conservative administration in a constructive way in the best interests of the town.

We also recognise that it is important that the Council saves money from the present leisure subsidy budget because of the financial challenges facing the Council and that bringing a private provider in to run some of Swindon’s strategic leisure facilities could be beneficial in bringing more specialist and commercial skills to generate greater income from our leisure facilities. 

However we do not see the leasing off of Swindon’s leisure facilities for 99 years can be anything more than the effective disposal of these facilities and therefore not in the best interests of the town. We believe the leases of these facilities should be no more than 25 years and preferably less. And we also feel that community leisure facilities like the Haydon Centre and Highworth Recreation Centre should be offered to their respective Parish and Town Councils or community groups to take over their operational management before being offered to a private leisure provider.

We believe our proposals will ensure that these facilities remain under public ownership, while also helping the Council reduce the present subsidy the Council provides to run its leisure facilities and we will be urging the other political parties to support our proposals.”

Cllr Junab Ali