Area Summaries   Allerdale, Ards, Babergh, Berwick, Broxbourne, Cambourne, Castle Morpeth, Cheltenham, Dartford, Daventry, Deeping, Didcot, Dunmow, Dunstable, Ealing, Easington, East Northant's, Ely, Flitwick, Flintshire, Fowey, Grantham, Great Yarmouth,  Hackney, Harpenden, Harrow, Holme Pierrepont,  Hungerford, Kerrier, Lambeth, Lee Valley, Lewisham, Lilleshall, Maldon, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley, North Kesteven,  Oadby,  Penwith, Sleaford, South Bedfordshire, South Kesteven,  South Norfolk, Spalding, St Albans,  Stansted, Stoke Mandevile,  Swale, Three Rivers, Tunbridge Wells, Uttlesford, West Devon,  West Berkshire, West Lindsey,  Wokingham,  Worcester, Wycombe, Wymondham

 ..              

Looking at standards and raising the game since
 March 2004

Leisure Connection Watch

                         Last updated : 21 November 2009 

Incorporating Harpers Health & Fitness

and other LC brands 

Camp Energy  ~  Aqua Action Swim School 

~ Venue Connect  ~  Party Animals  ~  Planet Action.               

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The Leisure Connection Dossier - Issue 6 

With so much information about LC on this website it can be time consuming finding the leading items. Now you can download a Word document with key reports about LC. The dossier refers to Audit Commission, council and media sources. Items are listed under headings that include Problems with Council Contracts, Health & Safety, Cleaning & Hygiene, Maintenance, Staffing,  Price Increases, and User Contract Issues.  The current version is  Issue 6, published 24.12.08. 

   Index for Headings from January 2008 till now  Headings from 2007  Headings from 2006    Headings from 2004 to 2005 

 Dates on left are when items were added to LCW.    Dates on right are when reports first appeared.     30.1.09 

A 2007 report listing major failures in basic H&S at a Harrow centre operated by LC has come to light. As well as the reports from 2005 and 2009, and 2008 police criticisms of the company, the 2007 report refers to an earlier H&S prosecution. Among the horrors discovered in 2007 were: insufficient staff, including lifeguards; missing duty managers; national procedures that did not work locally: dirty kitchen; unsupervised children’s area; and “The standard of cleanliness is poor; that coupled with a low standard of maintenance makes the place seem drab and unhygienic.” 

“The operations manager had been on a pool management course but appeared to be unclear about the significance of the pool readings. At times the pool readings were outside safe operations parameters but these were not picked up or dosing etc adjusted to bring these back in line. Readings had been filled in but it is questionable whether all were actual readings or assumed. On some shifts, readings had been missed completely."

“The kitchen for public hire was extremely dirty and ill-kept There were also clear breaches of food hygiene rules and codes of good practice… dirty sinks and toilets, week-old layers of oil and fat on kitchen cookers, broken fire doors… no written safety procedures are in place for receiving deliveries of chemicals for the swimming pool … tests on the level of chemicals in the pool were at times outside safe levels and at other times missing completely."

Is it just me or do you get the feeling that the Leisure Connection brand is being downplayed and Harpers Fitness being pushed harder? Go to www.leisureconnection.co.uk and Harpers features at the top of the home page. Click on "Leisure Sport and Fitness" and you arrive at http://www.harpersfitness.co.uk/  Don’t bother looking for centres at the old website; all the LC venues are now at Harpers – not that the old homepage tells you this.

What could have prompted these changes? In the nuclear and other industries, disaster management is often a factor in rebranding. Is LC bracing itself for an even more serious dent to its public image? PB

30.1.09 St Albans - "Out-of-order lift sinks disabled Ken's pool visits" 30.1.09

30.1.09 Stoke Mandeville - "Faulty equipment bars disabled swimmers from the home of Paralympics"  29.1.09

POLICE had to shut down one of the largest entertainment venue in Harrow amid fears the management had lost control.... after a fight involving up to 50 young people broke out inside the hall during the event. ...Sergeant Carl Davis...said Byron Hall and the adjoining Harrow Leisure Centre has a “consistent problem with crime and disorder”, and pointed the finger squarely at Leisure Connection for not doing enough to tackle the problem. He added managers have “stalled, dithered, dawdled, and smoke-screened” over a number of years to avoid putting in adequate security measures, such as CCTV alarm systems, and employing enough bouncers, as requested by the police.

Residents are calling for a change of management after problems at Harrow Leisure Centre... complaints ranging from poor maintenance to lack of security...

Harrow Council ...  said the building is in a state of disrepair but wanted to replace it, a project scrapped when funding fell through... ...a swimmer at the centre said they should develop rather than scaring people off. "I'd like to see them replace the current contractors with people who would get the place up and running like they should.” 

The Councillor responsible said he knew there were problems. “They've got a contract for two more years and if I terminate that contract before then I will need money to buy them out....  I'm not going to spend a lot of money to buy them out of an old building.”  He said his department  told Leisure Connection that the council is not responsible for its staffing problems and the company itself must solve them.

 “The (monitoring) sheets used by Vale Farm are not fit for purpose “ “…no audit programme of how staff are performing the tasks…”  Testing tablets had no expiry date. Manufacturer not contacted after failure.  “What happens to these reports was my next question. Again blank faces. It seems no one apart from the head office sees these reports.”  “…no one had actually read the (health improvement) notice to see what it entailed…” “The gradual rise (in chlorine readings) should have been observed. Because of some of the above failures this did not take place. At this point I stated that for all I know these figures could just be made up. This might be a strong possibility.”

The Concerns include cleanliness, no evidence of safety checks,  staffing and training worries raised "consistently", high levels of bacteria, excessive chlorine, and pool water testing equipment in "very poor condition".

Headings from 2007      Headings from 2006     Headings from 2004 to 2005