GL1 Leisure Centre in Gloucester 'may reopen within weeks'
It's under council plans which could save more than 150 jobs by bringing in an interim provider
The future of leisure provision in the city was in doubt last week when Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust decided not to extend its contract with Gloucester City Council and cease trading.
It lead to 150 jobs being put at risk.
Initially, city council chiefs felt it would be unlikely the facilities would reopen before September next year after a new long term leisure provider was appointed.
However, they have now worked on a phased plan to reopen both sites within the next few weeks.
The plan to appoint an interim provider would see the facilities opened on a staged basis over the next few weeks and the facilities are likely to run on a reduced service initially.
The University of Gloucestershire has already taken control of the sports arena at Oxstalls and teaching is understood not to have been impacted.
The university was able to reopen the arena for student teaching use only as they have sufficient first raiders.
The city council has taken back possession of GL1, Oxstalls tennis centre and the associated pitches.
And city chiefs are in talks with the university about how they could reopen Oxstalls to community use.
The authority is still working through its plans but they believe it will be likely they will be able to reopen the external pitches for bookings and allow the park run’s access to the car park.
They will then look at reopening the indoor facilities at Oxstalls and after that they will turn their attention to GL1 which they say is a slightly more complicated building to operate and manage due to the swimming pool.
By the time they reach that stage they hope the interim provider will be appointed to reopen the rest of the facilities.
They say it may still be a partial service as it may take longer to re-establish exercise classes.
City council chiefs want to appoint an interim provider, potentially on a 12- or 18-month basis, and they want that firm to offer a guaranteed interview to all those who were made redundant by Aspire last week. The intention being that as many as possible will be taken on.
The council is still intending to bring in a new provider to take on the running of the services on a long term basis.
Culture and leisure cabinet member Andy Lewis (C, Quedgeley Fieldcourt) thanked officers for the work done so far in drawing up plans to reopen the facilities as soon as possible.
He said: “Getting these facilities open and allowing our community access to them is our number one priority at the moment. We shared the concern and disappointment at the news that the Aspire Trust could no longer run the city’s leisure facilities.
“We are working tirelessly to offer what we can until a new provider can be found. We’ll be contacting local clubs and regular bookers and we also want to reach out to former Aspire employees so we can ensure they’re offered interviews.”
Prior to last week’s announcement the council had understood that the trust would continue to operate until September 2024 and had begun looking for a new provider to take on the leisure services from this point.
The council was extremely disappointed when the trust announced that it would not be able to continue despite the council committing to financial support that they had requested, of over £1.5 million since 2019.
A meeting is set to be organised with Active Gloucestershire to work with sports clubs and sporting bodies.
Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust Board of Trustees said in a statement last week that the charity has faced some challenging conditions over the last few years and have done everything they can to meet those challenges.
“Having reached the end of our 15-year contract we hoped to continue for another year to ease the council’s search for another operator.
“However, as a registered charity, trustees have a legal duty to only trade if council funding is assured and risk is controlled. Trustees felt unable to trade legally as a ‘going concern’.
“We have now taken the incredibly difficult decision to wind up the charity and to go into liquidation as we believe we are no longer able to operate legally in the way that we would wish.
“We’d like to thank our staff who have consistently gone above and beyond, as well as our loyal customers who have supported us throughout the last 15 years.
“The leadership of Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust will now work with partners to close down the business with immediate effect.”
A web page will be set up on the council’s website with FAQs and that is where people should check for more details. Anyone who has any questions about the closure can email leisure@gloucester.gov.uk