Rising Fuel Costs Hit Leisure Centres
December 1 2011
Soaring fuel costs are having a significant
financial impact on the many services Cheshire East Council offers
its residents.
The authority has seen its fuel bills rise
sharply – gas by 34 per cent and electricity by 25 per cent – in
the past 12 months. Despite installing energy-saving equipment,
this increase is still being felt strongly in services dependent on
high energy usage, such as leisure centres.
Like many local authorities, Cheshire East
Council faces the challenge of dealing with fuel costs and
maintaining services. As a result, the cost of using leisure
centres is to be adjusted.
Although leisure services are heavily
subsidised and are not statutorily required, provision of such
services is essential to the health and wellbeing of residents.
Funding for these services will continue to be carefully monitored
in the future.
Cheshire East Council is to absorb the
majority of these rising costs – approximately two-thirds – with
service users making up the final third. The cost of using leisure
centre services will increase by an average of 8.5 per cent. This
will come into effect from January 1 2012.
Here are some examples of what this will mean
for those using leisure services:
- A swimming session, costing £3.70p will be £4 – an increase of
just 30p;
- Hiring a Badminton court at £9.50 will be £10.30; and
- An aqua-aerobics session, costing £4.20p will be £4.50p.
Discounts of 20 per cent are available for
people under the age of 16 and those over 60. Swimming for children
under the age of three will remain free. However, there are ways
for all leisure centre users to get significant discounts. The
Options card gives users a discount of 40 per cent. An annual
membership is just £5.
The cost of an Everybody membership is
unchanged. These are year-long memberships which can be paid for
monthly or annually (no joining fee) and result in big discounts
for regular users.
Councillor Michael Jones, Cabinet member with
responsibility for resources, said: “We can no longer sit back and
watch our energy bills continue to rise without taking further
action. We have made a lot of improvements in our leisure centres
to make them more energy efficient and to reduce costs. However,
the time has come to rethink how we can afford to keep running our
leisure centres at a high level. Cheshire East Council will
continue to pay the majority of this increase but we think it only
reasonable that the service users make a contribution. These
adjustments are sensible and fair.”
Councillor Rod Menlove, Cabinet member with
responsibility for environmental services, added: “I am sure many
people have seen fuel bills rise in their own homes and can
understand that this decision has not been made lightly. We can no
longer absorb these sky-high fuel bills and this has had a
significant impact on the cost of using leisure centre services. We
have thought long and hard about how this cost can be spread.
“Cheshire East Council will pay the majority.
The small increase for service users is necessary for us to
continue to maintain and improve our leisure centres. Big
reductions in the cost of using leisure services can still be made
using the Options card or via an Everybody membership.
“We have made many improvements in leisure
centres across Cheshire East so that they are fit for our residents
to use them for years to come. Continued maintenance and necessary
improvements cannot be realised without this pricing rethink.”
Information about the Everybody membership and
Options card can be found on the Cheshire East Council website
http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/
There are 2.5 million visitors to Cheshire
East Council’s leisure centres each year.
Approximately 6,500 people use an Options
discount card. This is available at a cost of just £5 a year.
More than £12,000 of savings have been made in
Wilmslow leisure centre with the installation of automatic lighting
controls, boiler controls and LED lights.
Approximately £10,000 is saved each year at
Macclesfield Leisure centre thanks to automatic lighting controls
and equipment which reduces energy consumption.
Maintenance and improvement work is currently
being undertaken at both Wilmslow and Macclesfield Leisure
Centres.
Savings of £2,000 a year are being made at
both Shavington and Alsager leisure centres.
£1.4 million is to be invested into Nantwich
Swimming Pool for improvements.
In Sandbach Leisure Centre, new changing rooms
have been installed as well as a new pool cover and boiler.
