Broxbourne sports centre gets £5m funding boost
John Warner Sports Centre is due for investment worth more than £5million amid a sports and leisure deficit in Broxbourne.
John Warner Sports Centre is due for investment worth more than £5 million amid a sports and leisure deficit in Broxbourne.
Finance chiefs at the borough council face a deficit of £693,000 across their sports and theatre facilities in the current financial year, which ends in April 2024.
Despite a day-to-day shortfall, the authority has plans to plough £4.5m into the Hoddesdon leisure centre “to upgrade the facilities to attract and retain customers”.
More than £1.54m will come from a special Broxbourne sport and leisure reserve, which councillors have saved over previous years.
Around £2.96m will come from building schemes in the surrounding area, secured via legal agreements with developers.
An additional £500,000 is listed in the papers for plant upgrades at the John Warner Sports Centre, plus £103,500 for pool sand filter refurbishments at the venue and its sister centre in Cheshunt – the Laura Trott Leisure Centre.
Longer-term “capital” investments and day-to-day spending are accounted for separately in local government budgets.
“Membership numbers at the sports sites have continued to rise during 2023/24 and it is expected that this will continue in 2024/25,” the papers read.
“The improving performance is reflected in increased income in the 2024/25 budget figures, however, this has been partly offset by inflationary cost pressures, namely National Living Wage and energy prices.”
The National Living Wage is the minimum wage for people aged 23 and over, set at £10.42 in 2023/24.
The government will raise the minimum wage for people aged 21 and over to £11.44 come April.
Authority leaders have previously revealed John Warner Sports Centre gas costs rose by 375 per cent between 2019/20 and November 2023, with an electricity bill increase of 221 per cent over the same period.
Sports minister Stuart Andrew visited the Hertfordshire venue in November to launch the first phase of the Swimming Pool Support Fund – a £20m package for pools across England to give them “immediate relief” against rising operating costs, including £188,831 for the John Warner Sports Centre.
Broxbourne Borough Council budget setters expect a deficit of £693,000 across their leisure facilities in 2023/24 – including the John Warner Sports Centre and The Spotlight in Hoddesdon.
This is smaller than the budgeted £1.6m deficit for the current year.
The authority has planned a £597,000 deficit for 2024/25, which includes the figure which venues will hand back to the authority’s general fund for wider service provision.
To plug the revenue budget gap, councillors could agree to “lend” the venues cash from the general fund reserve which would be “replenished with interest when Broxbourne Sport and Leisure makes a surplus”.
The budget covers all of Broxbourne Borough Council’s anticipated expenditure and investments for 2024/25.
It pledges a £7.3m investment into the Brookfield new homes project near Cheshunt “to bring forward the first two phases of the overall Brookfield project” – rising to £9.5m the following financial year.
It also features a £210,000 fund for Waltham Cross regeneration to “match fund” Levelling Up Fund cash from Westminster, and £82,145 to “remedy access deficiencies and surface water flooding issues due to the recent residential development at 424 Goffs Lane” – which will draw on developer money.
In the day-to-day budget, the authority has set out plans for £172,922 “corporate management” savings by removing vacant posts and getting rid of some subscriptions.
The tree planting budget could be cut by £30,000, along with a £100,000 saving from the “removal of the council-funded initiative relating to the cost of living crisis”.
Green waste subscription fees are set to rise – from £50 to £53.
The borough council’s share of council tax is set to go up by £5 for an “average” band D property – an increase of 3.26 per cent.
Taxpayers in average-value properties would pay £158.24 towards Broxbourne Borough Council services in 2024/25, if councillors agree the changes later in February.