LC's New Contract in Brent

The Twisted Road to the New Contract     Local Press Coverage     Council's Press Release Unspun 

Local Press Coverage  

Wembley & Kingsbury Times 19.7.06 Reproduced in full 

Company has contract renewed

The company running Vale Farm Sports Centre has had its contract renewed despite serious concerns about its past performance. Leisure Connection ltd was awarded a seven year contract to run the Sudbury leisure centre at Brent Council's executive meeting on Monday night. Executive members and officers agreed thee had been problems with cleanliness and health and safety at the centre under Leisure Connection , but still felt renewing its contract was the best option.

Officers said it would be too expensive to bring Vale Farm's running in house, because staff at the centre would have to be paid higher salaries in line with Brent's standard terms and conditions. Both Leisure Connection and Parkwood Leisure had bid for the contract, but Leisure Connection  was the only company to reach the "lowest level" to be 'considered an acceptable score'.  Officers insisted clauses had been inserted into the new contract which would allow the council to penalise Leisure Connection if its performance proved unsatisfactory.

Environment chief, Cllr Irwin Van Colle, said: "We have inherited this and there is not a lot we can do about it. We have no option but to agree this."

The executive ordered council officers to carry out a review of Leisure  Connection's performance nine months after the new contract begins. The executive decided to take the running of Charteris Sports Centre away from Leisure Connection, and bring it in house.

Wembley Observer 20.7.06    By Alex Stephens    Reproduced in full apart from photographs

'Five more years of this?' - hearts sink at pool decision

The company behind Wembley's notorious Vale Farm Sports Centre has won a mandate to run it for another five years. Members of Brent's ruling executive voted to award management company Leisure Connection a contract to continue operating the centre in Watford Road, North Wembley, at a meeting on Monday.

The move has caused anger among swimmers and gym-goers who have complained about dismal standards at the venue since Leisure Connection took control. In an impassioned speech, veteran swimmer Philip Bromberg, a gardener from Wembley Park, told councillors he was fed up with lacklustre service, health and safety nightmares, faulty equipment and bad hygiene. He said, "I have had seven years of poor service at Vale Farm. Although things have improved in the past three months in some areas, during the past two years it's been at its worst ever. The fact that Leisure Connection couldn't improve things when their contract was under negotiation puts very grave doubts in me that they will improve things if hey get the contract again."

Since Leisure Connection began managing Vale Farm on behalf of Brent Council in 1999, officers have received a stream of steady complaints from disgruntled clients. Paul Burns. of West Hill, Wembley Park, was so fired up by events at the centre he set up Leisure Connection Watch, a website dedicated to monitoring management standards. A log on the site records problems ranging from freezing cold showers and litter on the floor to poorly maintained gym equipment and cloudy pool water. 

When the management contract came up for negotiation last year, Leisure Connection was one of four companies in the race to broker a new deal with Brent Council. Despite its poor record, officers in charge of the tendering process said Leisure Connection's bid was the best and recommended that councillors award the company another contract. But hey promised the new contract would give Brent tighter controls over Leisure Connection. 

Accepting their recommendation Councillor Irwin Van Colle, lead member for environment, planning and culture, said: "Hopefully this will close a book, we all want to see shut and allow a fresh start." 

No-one from Leisure Connection was available to comment as the Observer went to press. 

LC have a habit of not being available for comment on negative stories. PB

The Twisted Road to the New Contract

18 July 2006

Last night Brent Council's Executive Committee met to consider a re-tendering report from the Director of Environment about a new leisure contract.  It agreed to accept the recommendation that LC be given a new contract subject of finalisation of the deal.

A councillor emailed me today saying another Vale Farm user had shared similar concerns to mine with the meeting ."However, the new contract (with LC) is more tightly drawn, with provisions for better management. It will be more expensive for the Council, but payment is to be linked to performance, and there are termination mechanisms. Clearly it is important that this new contract is closely monitored by the users, who should make sure that that all problems are reported back to the Council."

That LC will continue at Vale Farm might  be interpreted as a vote of confidence in the contractor or that the many criticisms of LC on LCW and elsewhere are not well founded. An examination of the report presented last night shows that this is not warranted. The full report is available at http://www.brent.gov.uk/commins.nsf/603d903f15b2571d80256dd9006a0886/43016008c03c5094802571a4005107e5/$FILE/Env%20Leisure%20management.pdf  but some key aspects are set out here.

The report alludes to the difficulties in the current LC contract. In 3.3 it says, "By retendering the Council would be able to address areas of current weakness and a new specification would be written that would result in a better quality service that is more closely aligned to the Council priorities and Sports Strategy themes. The new specification would provide an opportunity to secure improved value for money to the Council."

LC will not be continuing at Charteris Sports Centre. This will now  return to direct management by the Council. Bridge Park Sports Centre is already directly managed by Brent. The only other facility is Willesden Leisure Centre, still under construction. The much delayed Willesden PFI contract went to a consortium led by LC.

Four out of eleven companies that had expressed an interest were invited to proceed with tendering but two of these (Greenwich Leisure and Enfield Leisure) withdrew. As a result, LC had only one competitor (Parkwood Leisure).

Officers were concerned about the bids returned by  LC and Parkwood in July 2005. So much so that all four companies were invited to submit new bids by October. However, the other two companies still did not bid.

"3.12 Initial evaluations of the October submissions were carried out and approximately 90 clarification questions were sent to each tenderer and clarification meetings were held. Final bid evaluation was then possible. Although the bids were affordable, officers were disappointed with the quality of the tenders which was reflected in the low scores awarded to each bid with the marketing and programming sections scoring most poorly within the evaluation."

"3.14 The service specification was written specifically to help the Council achieve its social objectives and deliver quality services for all its communities. The specification focussed on encouraging participation and use of the sports centres by target groups and by proactively engaging with low and non user groups. Officers were concerned that these were areas that contractors had been particularly weak or silent on in their submissions until pushed to comment at the clarification stage and were not convinced that they would deliver these requirements and achieve the improved standards of the specification."

In January 2006 the Council decided not to accept any of the tenders  and asked officers to look at alternatives. This meant that LC was given a six month extension on its old contract, which now finishes in October 2006.  The officers reviewed and recommended: "Bring Charteris Sports Centre in house and award the contract for Vale Farm to either Leisure Connection or Parkwood Leisure following further negotiation and reevaluation."

3.23 The main advantages of this option ... are that the Council would have control over Charteris and so could ensure that it plays a key role in increasing sporting opportunities and achieving strategic objectives in the south of the Borough. It will give the Council greater flexibility and remove the need to negotiate with a contractor over changes to the specification to reflect any changes in Council priorities. Charteris will be relatively easy to manage as a satellite centre as staffing levels are small and the Council already has experience of operating a dryside sports facility. It should also be possible to achieve some economies of scale by undertaking joint marketing and outreach work with the Council’s sports development team and Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre...." 

Both LC and Parkwood agreed to provide Vale Farm only bids and LC's was scored higher. The criteria and weightings used at an earlier stage, and presumably later on, were;

• Service 30%;  • Facility Management 20%; • Equipment supply and maintenance 5%; • Finance 35%; • Legal 5%; • Other 5%. 

However, these criteria are not further defined in the report so it is unclear if, how and to what extent LC's dodgy record in Brent and many other places was used. Three Councillors on the executive with whom I spoke shortly before yesterday's meeting were not aware of the Leisure Connection Dossier, even though this had been sent months ago to the Leisure Department with a request that it be made available.

Does any of the following inspire confidence?

"3.31 The specification is largely outcome based and to help develop a positive partnership with the contractor which will ensure continuous improvement and achievement of the required service outcomes, nine key performance indicators (KPI’s) have been identified. The contractor will use these KPI’s to monitor its performance and a system of financial deductions will apply for failure to achieve the required performance standards. The initial tender submission from Leisure Connection did not accept some of these KPI’s, however during the negotiations on the revised specification Leisure Connection reversed their position and have accepted all the KPI’s and the associated performance payment mechanism."

Partnership requires willingness on both sides. Does a company that takes five years to put right the defective showers it installed at Vale Farm and is recorded in meeting minutes as dragging its heels on other maintenance sound like the sort of partner you want? KPI's are important but also can be counter-productive if all that is delivered relates to them and other important aspects of the user experience and council interests get sidelined.  

And this I find very concerning;

"5.5 Leisure Connection has raised a number of issues with the conditions of contract and other contract documentation for the leisure management contract and these issues will be the subject of further negotiation with Leisure Connection prior to a contract being awarded. Having reviewed the issues raised by Leisure Connection, officers are confident that the outstanding matters will be able to be resolved during negotiations."

The worry is that time is running out for further re-tendering and that the company will seek to exploit the Council being under pressure to conclude and LC having its name in the frame.  

Like many Brent leisure users I see the awarding of any further contracts to LC as a badge of shame for the council. It is entirely regrettable that a company that has let down users so often was even considered. It is a pity that the new council was elected only in May and then a hung council took its time working out who does what. The end result is that all three major parties will now carry responsibility for the tears I predict will not be long in coming. PB

Council's Press Release on New Contract 18.7.06  (with comments added by PB on how this story has been spun)

Brent Council has awarded a new leisure management contact to Leisure Connection, in a deal which will benefit sportspeople in the borough. Promises, promises... hatched chickens are being counted here and elsewhere below.

The council’s Executive Committee agreed last night, Monday 17 July, to award the new five-year contract to manage Vale Farm Sports Centre, in Watford Road, north Wembley, to Leisure Connection, which currently manages it. The new contract, which starts in November, protects existing services while ensuring better provision in some key areas. 

The council has already been working with Leisure Connection to further improve standards at the centre. Yes but not very successfully. E.g. From Minutes of Council and & LC meeting on 24/6/05.  ""Repairs and maintenance - slow to implement necessary repairs and maintenance to equipment or fixtures and fittings e.g. broken gym equipment, light bulbs.   Showers and water temperature - this is an ongoing issue but one that leads to customer dissatisfaction."

 The new contract guarantees that free swimming for older and disabled people, and for young people during school holidays, will continue at Vale Farm. The council’s move to introduce the free sessions has proved immensely popular.  This reflects well on the council but any contractor could have been paid to do this and other things mentioned below.

Among the other improvements, will be:

Brent Council’s Lead Member for Environment and Culture, Cllr Irwin Van Colle, said: “I am pleased the new contract will help us deliver improving services at Vale Farm. Brent Council has put a high priority on sports in the borough, both in providing good sports facilities and fostering a wide-range of sporting opportunities.”  

The new Willesden Community Sports Centre, a first-class £16m facility with new pool, is due to open in November. The decision to build a new centre was made in April 2001. While recent reports claim Willesden is "on target"  they fail to make clear that the target been moved forward on several occasions. For example, the first WSC Newsletter published jointly by the council and LC in January 2004 said, "The new Willesden Sports Centre is expected to   Details of the moving  dates given are on LCW.

 Notes for Editors  

Measures Brent has taken to improve sports provision include free swimming for certain groups, the introduction of the BActive leisure card, offering a 40 per cent discount to some groups, and investment in new and existing facilities. The existing leisure card was rebranded. Prices for most card users have been way ahead of inflation ever since LC took over.   

 The Willesden Sports Centre will be the first new public sports centre in the borough for 30 years. Facilities include a sports hall, main and learner pool, health and fitness facilities, martial arts rooms, indoor running tube and outdoor athletics track. For more on sport on Brent, please visit www.brent.gov.uk/sports.nsf