Oadby & Wigston  See also under Quest

 I was interested to read (Mercury, September 15) about Leisure Connection being fined for failing to keep the Oadby and Wigston swimming pools clean.

I have been a regular swimmer at the Oadby pool since it opened and I have complained for a very long time about the state of the facilities, in particular the ladies changing room. I have written previously to Leisure Connections head office in Leeds, but received no reply. 

I visited the pool on three occasions last week and I can assure the regional manager that things have certainly not "improved massively" as he claims.

The toilets were dirty at 8am on Monday and did not appear to have been cleaned during the week at all. Surely in a public facility such as this, toilets should and must be cleaned and disinfected on a daily basis.

Mrs M Beaumont, Oadby. 

15.9.07  COMPANY FINED OVER DIRTY SWIMMING POOLS by Paul Conroy, Leicester Mercury  http://snipurl.com/1r4r6  Text reproduced in full
 
A company running council-owned swimming pools has been fined for failing to clean them properly. Council bosses say the problem at the Oadby and Wigston swimming baths led to the resignation of a pools manager. Oadby and Wigston Borough Council took the action against Leisure Connection after investigating complaints from users about the pools.

People had complained about the cleanliness and state of repair of the pools as well as the changing rooms. The firm was fined a total of £2,500 for the problems, which dated back to March and April this year. Details of the problems have only just emerged in the minutes of a meeting, which will go before the council on Tuesday.

A council report said: "The senior contracts manager's inquiries revealed that the problems were largely a result of poor management on site. "As a result of bringing this to the attention of Leisure Connection's senior management, a pools manager has resigned his position and steps are being taken to improve the morale of the workforce at the pools." (This is contradicted below by LC, suggesting poor communication between the council and the company. PB)

Leisure Connection denied the manager resigned over the failures, saying he left for another job and had been looking for a new position for some time. The council said standards have improved but increased monitoring had continued to ensure they do not slip back. (Given the criticism by the Audit Commission - see next item below -  one would very much hope there has been effective monitoring. PB)

Mike Darlison, regional manager for Leisure Connection, said: "We did have some issues at the time, we had some staff turnover. Clearly standards dropped at the time. Things have improved massively." He said the firm had been working with the council for 18 years and there had never been "anything of this nature" before. (Or lack of monitoring let LC get away with it. PB)

Coun Bill Boulter, who chairs the services committee that looked at the problems, said he was satisfied with the job now being done by Leisure Connection.
He said: "Things are a lot better. There won't be a repeat of the problems. "I think it was a management problem at the pools. It was just a lack of managers' control." (Not "just" lack of control by LC. Why wasn't the Council doing its job of monitoring the contract effectively? PB)

Ruth Arnold, who is a coach for Oadby and Wigston swimming club, said both pools had been in a poor condition. She said they were neither clean nor properly maintained with problems like a door missing off a toilet left for months before being fixed. She said: "All the major things have been addressed, probably since the fine. But it's not as clean as you would like it - there's general grubbiness."

Alison Blissett, 28, from Fleckney, uses Wigston pool with her two children Georgia, six, and Lattisha, four. She said: "I've noticed it getting worse and worse over the past year. The toilets are dirty, there's water everywhere and the shower cubicles are absolutely disgusting. "I make my children go to the toilet before they leave the house because it's so dirty here. It was particularly bad in March and April but I would not really say that it had got any better."

The Audit Commission inspected the council's leisure provisions in June and was critical of the authority. It said the number of people using the pool was falling and it was down by 18 per cent since 2004 to 05.

How Not to Manage a Leisure Contract

In July 2007 the Audit Commission published the results of a detailed  Inspection Report into Cultural Services at Oadby and Wigston Borough Council http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/Products/BVIR/036833C5-F672-4cc5-9F29-04E7D194B088/OadbyandWigstonBC-CulturalServices05Jul07REP.pdf

 The report included the Council's Parklands Leisure / Banqueting Centre, Oadby Swimming Pool and Wigston Swimming pool, all outsourced to LC.

Under  "How well does the service manage performance?"

"The Council is not challenging the leisure contractor to improve performance. A presentation to the Scrutiny Panel in October 2005, a few months before the contract was renewed, highlighted the contractor’s intention to increase usage of the leisure facilities by 25 per cent over the next five years and to engage all sectors of the population. However, attendances have fallen and are targeted to fall further. Not all of the community projects relating to sport and recreation agreed for 2006/07 have been effectively delivered." (Words are even cheaper when there is poor contract management. I don't assume this is down to the quality of the council staff. Insufficient staff and resources to ensure performance, poorly worded contracts and lack of political will to use penalties are also factors. What should be clear by now is that contractors must be proactively managed because trust is not enough. PB)

 "... in 2006 the Council extended the contract to manage its swimming pools and leisure centres to 2014 without the benefit of an evaluation of the condition of the facilities, planned as part of the asset portfolio review in 2007. The Council may find it has signed up to operate its current leisure facilities that are not fit for purpose..."

 Recommendation

 "Improve its performance management of cultural services by... developing more output and outcome measures and associated targets for itself, its contractor and partners including indicators that specifically measure value for money..." 

Other Extracts

"The Council has not worked with the leisure contractor and other partners to overcome known cost barriers. The survey of participation in sports and leisure activities carried out by the Council in 2005 identified cost as the main barrier to swimming, playing badminton and using a gym. Further consultation carried out in 2006 as part of the Council’s budget-setting exercise showed that almost one in ten of those responding gave affordability as a reason preventing them from using the swimming pools and leisure centre, the second most frequently stated reason. Decisions on pricing and concessions are not effectively supporting the community plan priority to overcome barriers to accessibility of leisure particularly among target groups."

 "The Council’s approach to service standards is weak. Although a customer charter is in place at the facilities managed by the leisure contractor, the Council does not have a comprehensive suite of service standards across cultural services. This means that local people do not know what levels of service to expect or have sufficient information to judge whether the Council is providing a good service." 

Extracts from Services Committee 22nd August 2006  LEISURE CONNECTION – PROGRESS REPORT http://www.oadby-wigston.gov.uk/Home/Councillors%20and%20Committees/Agenda%20and%20Reports/Services/2006-07/2006-08-22/Leicesure%20Connection%20Progress%20Report.pdf