Cream of the Leisure Industry
11th February 2005The listing was posted by Serco Leisure
In January South Ribble Borough Council announced that they had selected Serco Leisure as the Council’s preferred partner for the leisure and cultural partnership.
Leader of the Council, Councillor Howard Gore said in his speech at a Council meeting,
“One of the original key aims of the project was to bring much needed investment in to the facilities. In fact the proposal will mean that the partner will invest around £7m into our Leisure sites over the life of the contract – a considerable sum of money.”
“That investment, together with the Council’s contribution to cover major structural repairs, will ensure that all of the seven Leisure facilities will be improved and maintained to the highest possible standard for our customers … on top of all this, we can make annual saving of over £200,000 and meet the wishes of our residents who told us they wanted us to spend less of our budget on leisure”
The plans submitted by Serco Leisure offer extensive new developments at key sites like Leyland Leisure Centre and minor improvements at smaller venues. The deal with Serco will also see significant improvements to the till systems on all sites which will allow internet bookings and the development of the Passport to Leisure scheme currently offered by the Council.
In an interview with BBC Radio Lancashire Councillor Gore went on to say,
“This is a true partnership; staff have been involved now throughout the 2 year process…they are happy with Serco. We have been to Serco sites and other potential bidders sites as well, and I think Serco come out as the cream of the leisure industry and we are happy to work with them.”
The new partnership is expected to start in April 2005 but before this date a tremendous amount of work will take place to ensure the smooth transfer of staff from the Council to Serco Leisure.