Lilleshall
Extracts from Report to
Shropshire County Council on Lilleshall National Sports Centre
- 27.6.07 http://snipurl.com/1o436
"....
While usage and income levels have remained steady, the facilities are tired and
some major sports have moved to new facilities elsewhere. The
new management contract introduced in 2000 has seen the operating costs escalate
to over £3m per annum.
There has been a lack of strategic vision and leadership in relation to Lilleshall over the last fifteen years. Various reviews have either not been focused or implemented and Lilleshall has been allowed to drift with only limited investment.
Lilleshall Sporting Futures (LSF) is a group of significant users of Lilleshall
National Sports Centre comprising British Gymnastics, Grand National Archery Society, English Table Tennis Association, British Weightlifters’ Association, Lilleshall Sports Injury Rehab and Shropshire County Council supported by other major users such as the Home Office Physical Education Branch and the English Institute of Sport.LSF’s vision is to build on Lilleshall’s success delivered over the last 50 years and develop the Centre to move forward through 2012 and beyond. The plan is to form a stakeholder trust to manage and operate the Centre after the present management contract expires in 2009.
On
5 March 2007 LSF met with Derek Mapp, Chairman of Sport England, to outline
their proposals for Lilleshall. This key meeting resulted in a positive outcome,
giving the ‘green light’ for LSF to further develop their proposal for a
viable operating model to take over and manage the Centre. SE agreed to provide
initial investment into the site and to ‘buy back’ some usage of the Centre
for regional work…
Genesis
Consulting was engaged by LSF in January 2006 to review Lilleshall with the
specific purpose of examining the case for a new stakeholder trust to manage the
centre. This also included an examination of the potential future use and
development of the site. The summary findings are as follows:
 | Strategic
management is currently too remote from the site |
| Sport
England do not have a clear vision of the role of national centres in elite
sport |
| There
is no specific vision for Lilleshall’s future |
| Though
Lilleshall’s name has a strong brand value it has not been exploited
effectively and the title ‘National Sports Centre’ is outdated and
inaccurate |
| The
present contract is poor and not cost effective |
| There
has been a complete lack of co-ordination on the site between users |
| The
image of Lilleshall is one of a ‘faded jewel’ which needs significant
investment |
If Sport England and LC with all their know-how cannot come up with a decent centre contract, what chance when the commissioner is a council with far less leisure management expertise?
Despite the findings of Genesis Consulting, Quest, the leisure management quality assessment system led by Sport England, last year rated the Lilleshall as "excellent", only the second centre in the UK to achieve this status.
What value is Quest to the public interest if a centre is rated as one of the top two in England when the contract provides poor value, there is "a complete lack of co-ordination between users", the reputation is "faded", the facilities "tired", and vision and focus are lacking?
This
raises questions not only about the worth of Quest accreditation but whether
Sport England should be involved in quality assurance when it has an interest in
establishments being assessed. I have previously questioned the wisdom of Sport
England awarding the contract to run Quest to a company that has lists LC and
other leisure contractors as clients. http://www.pmpconsult.com/clients.html
Perhaps it is time for an independent review of LC's other contracts with Sport England at Bisham Abbey and Holme Pierrepont? PB