Decision details

The Leader approves;

·       the re-opening of leisure facilities in Sheffield in line with this report and notes the premises that will remain closed,

·       funding of up to £16.6m for the provision of leisure services in 2020-21, which is £11.2m higher than the original approved budget and will need to be funded from reserves.

·       the payment to Sheffield City Trust by way of grant or loan the sum of up to £15m,

·       the variation to the agreements with  Places Leisure as set out in the legal implications section of this report and the contractual payment of the sum of up to £1.6m as set out in the financial section of this report,

·       notes that in relation to Sheffield City Trust there will be additional funding required in relation to redundancy costs, and

·       delegates authority to the Director of Finance and Commercial Services to identify funding (including from reserves) to pay pension costs of Sheffield City Trust where those costs cannot be met from the Trusts own resources.

The alternative options considered included keeping all SCT facilities temporarily mothballed.  This would reduce the estimated grant required by SCT during 2020/21 to £11.2m.  This option was ruled out as the savings in keeping facilities mothballed for no service offer was relatively small when compared to re-opening.  Furthermore, it is likely that there would be a detrimental impact to the health and wellbeing of residents if the facilities remained closed

Further alternative options considered included re-opening all SCT leisure facilities.  This option would increase the grant required by SCT to £16.6m in 2020/21 and would see Ponds Forge and Westfield Sports Centre re-open.  This option was ruled out because it is expensive and with social distancing measures in place the offer within these venues would be much reduced.

Ponds Forge in particular will be unable to deliver a range of events and services that would ordinarily contribute towards the running costs for the facility.

The Council will look to mitigate the impact of the extended mothballing of Ponds Forge and Westfield where possible by working with both SCT and Places Leisure to re-programme activity within other centres.

Further combinations of facilities were also considered, however, it was the preferred option was chosen because it offers equality of provision for residents across the city.