A Few of the Apologies and Acknowledgements of the Issues by Brent & LC

From Brent Chief Executive's reply to first stage 3 complaint, 11.8.03

In your request for an investigation at Stage 3 of the complaints process you raised four main areas that you wanted me to look into:

As a result of my investigation I am upholding your complaint because it is clear that the Council’s management of the Vale Farm contract has been inadequate and this has led to a service which sometimes falls short of the standard you are entitled to expect. Please accept my personal apologies for this. I am very grateful to you for taking the time and trouble to pursue your complaints and for highlighting what are important areas where we need to improve...

I know that you are a regular user of the pool at Vale Farm and, as a tangible way of making amends for your valid complaints I would like to offer you a year’s free swimming pass to Vale Farm. (I declined to accept the free pass saying that what I wanted was to have no more reason to complain.)

-----Original Message-----
From: {Forwarded by] Rez_CAMERON@brent.gov.uk 
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 8:26 PM
To: Paul Burns
Subject: FW Vale Farm Sports Centre

Dear Mr Burns,                       Re: Vale Farm Sports Centre.

I thank-you for your email dated 29th November regarding various issue at
Vale Farm Sports Centre.  Please be assured that all constructive comments
from our customers are welcome, shared with staff and acted upon.
I would reply to your comments as follows:-
I totally agree with your comments on the cleanliness of the wetside
Changing Room and have revised the cleaning schedules together with taking
on an extra cleaner in the evenings, which should result in an improvement
in the standard of hygiene and cleaning.
I trust you are pleased with the recent conversion of our electronic
lockers to the coin operated ones.
I have raised your concerns with staff and there should be a marked
improvement in monitoring around the site and there should not be any
disruption to lane swimming on Saturday Morning until at least 0850, due to
a regular booking....

Mr Burns I very grateful that a loyal and regular customer such as yourself
has taken the time and effort to comment at length regarding the facilities
at Vale Farm. I am  more than willing to meet you on site together with my
Operations Manager at a mutually convenient time in order to go through all
the issues you raise. Please contact me on 020 8901 1605 in order that I can
make the necessary arrangements.

Furthermore there is always a Duty Manager available who patrols the
building throughout the day, and is contactable through reception at all
times.  The Duty Manager will be pleased to address any concerns you may
have on a day to day basis.

Yours sincerely,

Ullash. A. Karia B.A. (Hons). [of Leisure Connection]
Contract  Manager- Brent

Ian Ogilvie, a new Manager for Vale Farm was appointed by Leisure Connection on 10.7.02. He suggested a meeting with me to discuss issues. I suggested that he meet with other early morning swimmers so that he would understand the concerns were not just mine. Below are Ian's notes of the complaints raised at that meeting. 

On several occasions I have suggested that Sue Harper, Head of Brent of Brent Leisure that she meet with early morning swimmers. 

Safety & Security

1.  Lifeguards who sleep on duty, or who group in fours and talk together without watching the pool, will miss swimmers who get into difficulties.

2. The pool is often very crowded in the mornings, and there is a suggestion that people enter without paying or checking at the desk. Entry should be checked and turnstiles controlled from the desk, to prevent unauthorised entry. One swimmer found two schoolboys going through the lockers last week. How did they get in? .... 

Cleanliness

3. The cleanliness of the men’s changing rooms has shown a marked deterioration in the past two weeks. Litter and rubbish are left lying around, and the floor doesn’t seem to have been cleaned.

4. The pool area itself is not clean, and the water is frequently opaque and contains particles of foreign matter. Do the filters work properly?

5.  The staff do not seem to be able to control the water temperature. It was 32⁰C on Monday. 

Facilities

6.  The showers are currently verging on useless. The plumbing in the men’s shower area leaks from every joint, and often there is not sufficient pressure to allow the showers to work at all.

7. The new lockers are vulnerable to abuse, and at one point more than a third of them were damaged so that they could not be locked properly. Many morning swimmers take their bags with them into the pool, rather than leaving them in lockers.

8. The temperature of the changing rooms is still much colder than the swimming pool area when the outside temperature is low. Swimmers who come wet from the pool are met by a blast of icy air when they enter the changing rooms, possibly partly because the doors at the other end have been left open. This problem might be lessened by putting strong return springs on the outside and inside doors to the changing areas, to keep them closed at all times. The changing rooms also need some more efficient form of heating.

9.  Lifeguards often forget to put up lane boards, with the result that slow swimmers go into the fast lane and hold up people who are on timed workouts.

10.  Finally, there is never any response to complaints put in the complaints box. Why is this?

(Ian acknowledged to the meeting that when he arrived at Vale Farm he found the complaint box was full.)

----Original Message-----
From: Rez.Cameron@brent.gov.uk  To: Paul Burns
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 4:03 PM
Cc: cllr.suresh.kansagra@brent.gov.uk; Ian Ogilvie; Rez_CAMERON@brent.gov.uk
Subject: Re: Vale Farm Swimming Complaint

-----Original Message-----
From: Rez.Cameron@brent.gov.uk To: Paul Burns
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: Vale Farm - Further Complaints

 Dear Paul

Thank you for your recent emails dated September 2nd and 9th which I will
be forwarding to Leisure Connection for a response...

Firstly we agree with you, Ian's acknowledgement was poor and have
addressed it with him.  If though there are still any outstanding issues
from that complaint could you please inform Iain copy to myself.

Ian has again spoken to the member of staff who on occasion has parked in
the disabled bay, and advised them that any future instance will result in a disciplinary.

The debris under the vending machine has now been cleared.

The cleaning of the lockers are to be re-addressed through the following
action, firstly he has met with the contract cleaners as it is clear that
standards have slipped.

Secondly he is looking into a male attendant who will be present in the
changing rooms that will be responsible for cleaning the lockers and
maintaining keys and bands etc...

-----Original Message-----
From: jo.nash@leisureconnection.co.uk To: Paul Burns
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 11:05 AM
Subject: Complaint re Vale Farm Sports Centre

I am writing further to your letter of complaint, which has been forwarded to me
directly from the London Borough of Brent.  I am deeply concerned at the service
you have experienced at the centre.  In particular  I am concerned that the site
has opened late on what would appear to be numerous occasions recently, together
with numerous cleaning/service standards within the pool and surrounding areas.

I have today contacted Ben Delaney the new General Manager to fully investigate
the issues raised in your email and to reply to me directly as to why the
service levels have fallen at the site.  When he has completed his investigation,
I will contact you again to clarify what action we are taking to ensure that
there is a substantial improvement in the service being provided to our users.
Jo Nash
Regional Director (London)

Jo's email was in response to complaints made on Brent on November 14th and 17th and forwarded to Jo Nash by the Council on November 18th. to be dealt with "as a matter of urgency". I never heard from Jo Nash again, nor from Ben Delaney. 

I received a reply from Christine Coppack, LC's Brent Contract Manager, on 16.12.03 which, for technical reasons was difficult to make sense of (Sent as Word Pro attachments that my software cannot read). As far as I can tell the replies from Jo and Christine and the appointment of Ben Delaney have made little difference to cleaning but some building and safety defects I had identified were corrected.  PB