Bury St Edmunds Labour Party quizzes West Suffolk Council over Abbeycroft Leisure annual grant

Bury St Edmunds Labour Party has asked West Suffolk Council not to remove an annual grant for leisure centres.

The response to the appeal was a suggestion the council was already doing a lot for leisure centres.

The question came as financial pressures on leisure management company Abbeycroft Leisure led it to consider closing Bury swimming pool and others in the district.

This was prevented by a one-off grant from West Suffolk Council.

Richard O’Driscoll, vice-chair of Bury Labour Party, said: “The Bury swimming pool and others in the district recently came close to closure because of financial pressures faced by Abbeycroft Leisure.

“The one-off grant has helped the immediate situation, but there will still be job losses and rising prices.

“As it can cost £27 for a family of four to swim, is it not now time for the council to restore a regular annual grant to provide long-term security and to ‘make sport for all’ a reality by bringing the cost of leisure down?”

Cllr Jo Rayner, deputy leader and portfolio holder for leisure, culture and community hubs, responded: “This council is proud of the investment and commitment put into leisure over many years.

“It is true the regular grant the council pays to Abbeycroft has reduced to zero from next year, but that is a result of the multi-million-pound investment we have put into our leisure estate over the last six years.

“The £5 million leisure investment fund delivered improvements at Newmarket, Brandon and Haverhill. We have built new centres at Skyliner and Mildenhall.

“This council has included £300,000 in our 2023/24 budget to ensure our swimming pools stay open, children and young people can learn to swim, competitive swimmers can train and people of all ages and abilities can use our pools for health and fitness.

“This council has a partnership with Abbeycroft Leisure to run its leisure centres and deliver wider leisure services.

“We supported Abbeycroft through covid and we are supporting them through this current challenge.

“Our intervention has averted job losses. If we had not stepped in with financial support significant job losses would have been on the cards as pools would have had to close temporarily.”

“We must be realistic. Leisure centres with pools are very expensive to run. Costs have increased and I think our residents understand that, so those who do use the centres will pay a fair and reasonable cost to keep active.”

Cllr Rayner also corrected Mr O’Driscoll on prices. Abbeycroft Leisure confirmed a family ticket for swimming at Bury leisure centre costs £18.50.

However, this only covers four people – either one adult and three children or two adults and two children – and larger families pay more.

Mr O’Driscoll said after the meeting: “The cabinet member missed the point.

“It was about how we make leisure and swimming affordable to most people and how we enable Abbeycroft Leisure to deliver that.

“Looking after people’s health and wellbeing is one of the main responsibilities of councils and one of the best ways to do this is providing good-quality and affordable leisure centres.

“Otherwise, we will end up with a generation of children who can’t swim.

“It is a really serious issue, particularly in these times of financial pressure. I know my Labour colleagues will continue to push for the grant.”

Mr O’Driscoll was also disappointed the lengthy response given by Cllr Rayner meant he was unable to come back with a further comment – as the five minutes allocated for the question was up.

Cllr Diane Hind, leader of the Labour group at West Suffolk Council, said before yesterday’s meeting: “Labour is committed to making swimming and other services available to all.

“It is particularly important during these challenging times that we commit to the long-term future of these services and that we bring the price down to enable as many people as possible to participate.

“We must make swimming, health and wellbeing a priority.”