South Kesteven   see also Deepings & Grantham

Grantham Journal 20.11.09  by Marie Baker  http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/The-Meres-Leisure-Centre-is.5844133.jp

The Meres Leisure Centre is branded 'a filthy, smelly, vile, unruly dive'  Reproduced in full apart from photographs

READERS are fed up to the back teeth with conditions at Grantham's Meres Leisure Centre. They say it's filthy, smelly and overrun with unruly kids. So the Journal went undercover to find out the truth - and showed the evidence to leisure centre bosses. Over the past five weeks, the Journal has gone at varying times three times a week armed with a camera and notebook to record its findings.

We found a litter-strewn changing room, mouldy shower heads and teenage yobs running riot. The stench of urine in the changing room was sometimes overwhelming, the pool temperatures felt cold and the jacuzzi and adjoining splash pool were open only once.

The leisure centre is managed by Leisure Connection (which is also known as Harpers Fitness) on behalf of South Kesteven District Council. The Journal showed its evidence to Paul Stokes, SKDC's corporate head of resources and organisational development, and Leisure Connection management.

Mr Stokes said: "We wanted to make this our flagship leisure centre for the district, which it hasn't been. We are working hard, both the council and Leisure Connection, to bring everything to an improvement. But we need people to work with us. We have ceiling tiles pushed out, people dropping litter on the floor and parents leaving dirty nappies in the changing rooms. We're committed to making this work, but we need everyone behind us."

He added that free swimming for under-16s "brought with it numerous problems" as the uptake was more than anticipated. In April alone, when the Government's free swimming initiative was launched, there were 15,000 visits from youngsters.

Some 148 hours' cleaning are carried out per week by an external cleaning company and two cleaners are employed by Leisure Connection.

Leisure centre bosses have now vowed to make improvements before Christmas.

Well done Grantham Journal for compiling the evidence over five weeks. This makes the attempt by Mr Stokes to counter the story appear very lame, as the conditions are clearly not a one-off, but persistent. They are also similar to issues reported before in South Kesteven and in other Harpers / LC run facilities. Many leisure centres have some inconsiderate users and vandals, but do not allow conditions to fester in this way.. 

Photos on the Journal website include:
"Litter strewn changing room" x2
"A missing shower unit"
"A grotty green shower head"
"Rust in the changing room"
"Rusty mouldy steps"
"One of several missing or wonky ceiling tiles" 

Not bad for a company that claims to be "Delivering Excellence in Leisure" PB

5.5.05  Council report recommends local leisure trust to replace LC at the end of their contract in 2008.

Information on LC's performance obtained under Freedom of Information

South Kesteven District Council responded with the email below and a report from July 2004 on the previous year's performance by LC. Both documents are produced in full with some information highlighted.

In summary, for the five centres LC managed between 1.1.03 and 28.2.05 LC received 722 rectification notices and were fined on 25 occasions for not meeting the contract standards. For one centre, Grantham Meres, there were 304 formal complaints between May 2003 and May 2004. Another two centres received 107 formal complaints in roughly the same period.  Despite Grantham Meres having so many complaints and the lion's share of the fines, it scored higher than other South Kesteven centres on its Quest Accreditation!

Frequent complaints were about cleaning, staff, catering, maintenance, fitness facilities, swimming and programmes.

From: ANDY ALLEN 
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 
To: Paul Burns
Subject: Freedom of Information Act

 Following your request to South Kesteven District Council for information relating to the performance of Leisure Connection Ltd within the South Kesteven District Council Leisure Services Contract, I am able to provide you with the following information.

A report on the general performance of Leisure Connection Ltd, which was prepared for Senior Officers of SKDC. It relates to the period July 2003 to July 2004.

  RECTIFICATION NOTICES
For the period 1/1/2003 to 28/2/2005, the Contract Monitoring Unit of SKDC have issued 722 rectification notices across the 5 facilities which Leisure Connection manage. (Grantham Meres Leisure Centre, Bourne Leisure Centre, Stamford Leisure Centre, Deepings Leisure Centre and South Kesteven District Council). Rectification notices do not necessarily carry any financial penalty. They simply highlight work required or issues at the time of the inspection. 

FINANCIAL PENALTIES
Financial penalties are incurred if the Inspection score does not reach 90% pass = Level 2 default £250.
Level 1 defaults are incurred if the Contractor does not complete a rectification notice/task within the given time period  = Level 1    default £25.

Within the time period you have requested the Contractor has incurred the following number of Level 1 and Level 2 defaults:

Grantham Meres 16
Deepings 7
South Kesteven Sports Stadium 3
Stamford 0
Bourne  2

FORMAL COMPLAINTS
SKDC have received the following number of formal complaints relating to the services provided by Leisure Connection Ltd, within the time period you are interested:

Grantham Meres 16
Deepings 6
South Kesteven Sports Stadium 2
Stamford 0
Bourne 6

CUSTOMER COMMENTS/COMPLAINTS ANALYSIS
The period up to the end of June 04 is contained within the word document attachment.
Since then and up to end February 2005, Leisure Connection have received the following comments for each centre, on their customer comments forms

Grantham                                Positive 11     Negative 55    
Deepings                                Positive 2      Negative 5
South Kesteven Sports Stadium           Positive 0      Negative 0
Stamford                                Positive 17     Negative 4
Bourne                                  Positive 6      Negative 43

For information - we have over a million annual visitors to our Leisure Centres.

Some of the above information is not available in electronic form, so I have provided you with the statistical analysis. If you would like any copies of the paper format you will have to let me know.

 Andy Allen
Sports Manager