At the rally held outside the leisure centre last month to demonstrate the town’s frustration at having its swimming pool closed, many fine words were spoken by our mayor and our MP in support of keeping the pool open, or at least reopening it at the earliest opportunity.
A meeting was organised the following week between Rother District Council (RDC), Rye Town Council (RTC) and Freedom Leisure (FL) and a joint statement from the participants on this was published last week.
They reported that it had been impossible to find a way of keeping the pool open and therefore it would close on October 31, and this duly happened. The main hopes of reopening the pool in the spring of 2023 lay with additional help being given by the government to the leisure industry, although whether such help is likely to be forthcoming remains in doubt. Indeed, FL themselves appear to have at least some doubt as to whether the pool will ever reopen.
Since then, other facts conveniently not mentioned in the joint statement have begun to come to light, the most astounding one being that no one seems to know the additional amount needed each month to keep the pool operating. The FL website quotes a sum of an extra £92,000 needed over the next twelve months (or approximately £7,600 per month). RDC believe the total cost to be between £10,000 – £15,000 per month but do not appear to know how much of that is in addition the costs prior to the recent energy price hikes, and RTC were under the impression that just the additional sum was £10,000 – £15,000 per month.
Who is right? The town council admit that they have received contradictory figures, although it would seem strange if Freedom Leisure had come the the meeting without the exact figures to hand and if they did not, it hardly inspires confidence in their ability to run a leisure centre with the required degree of efficiency for these cash-strapped times. The question also has to be asked, did anyone actually ask FL for the figures?
RTC have sensibly asked Freedom Leisure to supply management accounts. This was agreed subject to the recipients signing a non-disclosure agreement. Why an NDA? This is public money being used to run a public facility, all accounts should be open to scrutiny. But despite this, as at the time of writing (November 9) we understand that no accounts have yet been received, despite the fact that they are almost certainly held nearby in the leisure centre itself. Rye News understands that a business adviser is being engaged to examine them when they finally arrive, and to help to find areas where savings might be made and extra income-producing business generated.
In view of this, it seems strange that Freedom Leisure attempted last week to reduce the opening hours of that part of the centre still operating, but had to quickly reverse this, possibly by order of RDC who have the contractual right to approve the opening times. At the same time they appear to be actively discouraging new members to the centre, see below.
We now therefore have the situation where the contracted operators are unable to give precise figures to their clients, have failed to produce management accounts in a timely manner, have expressed a degree of doubt as to whether the pool will reopen at all, are trying to reduce opening hours to the other facilities and seem to be discouraging new members from joining. Their contract with RDC runs until 2026 and the more cynical of our readers might wonder whether they have decided that Rye is not for them and are looking for a way to close the leisure centre entirely and thereby nullify their contract. It must be emphasised that there is no hard evidence of this, but readers will perhaps be forgiven for wondering.
Susan Benn writes:
On Monday afternoon this week, apart from well-attended Splitz Dance Academy classes, only two people arrived at the Freedom Leisure Sports Centre to use the gym.
With the pool shrouded in darkness, one visitor asked for a membership to join the gym. She was told the cost of her new FL membership in Rye included swimming. The potential customer said she only wanted the gym. She was told: “You can go to Hastings to swim” whereupon the lady declined to take out her new membership in Rye.
It’s odd that FL are saying they want to encourage people to use ‘”the dry side” while the pool is closed but are turning people away by not making a gym only membership possible.
What is FL’s undeclared strategy for the future of our sports centre?
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
What about disabled people in Rye who can only swim for exercise? I have tried Bexhill this week, and found entry via the beach, with slippery tiles, no handrails to hold on and shallow water which doesn’t support you, plus no where to leave walking. sticks as well as the tiring journey. What are we supposed to do to keep healthy and active?
As a Charitable Leisure Trust, Freedom Leisure doesn’t appear in Companies House lists, so it’s very hard to find details about the Company, which runs 108 sites across the country.
I guess it has a turnover of many £millions, but has nevertheless decided to walk away from its contract with Rother 4 years early; that should be illegal.
I hope there’s a way ahead for a Rye based Community Charitable Trust to secure the future of the pool, a relatively new building funded from public donations, the local authority and Sports England Lottery.
Hopefully ESCC could hand over the building so the Trust could run it.
Obviously Freedom have the knowledge and expertise, but seem happy to walk away.
I am pleased Rye TC are making contact with several Parish Councils around Rye.
At present we are all losers, including the NHS, who will have to pick up the inevitable cases of ill health.