West Devon Borough Council FOI See also WDBC Main Page
Freedom of Information Request Documents Reveal Ongoing Strained Relationship Between LC/Harpers Fitness & West Devon Borough Council
Documents obtained in July 2011
clearly show that the Council quickly became disenchanted with LC/Harpers
Fitness. In September 2004 Councillor Nick Morgan boasted of selecting a “firm with an excellent reputation”
for the contract to run two leisure centres
and the LC Chief Executive said, “At Leisure Connection we pride ourselves on the service and quality of
facilities we deliver to local communities, and are confident that we can work with
our partners and to ensure that the people of the West Devon Borough are
offered a first class leisure facility."
Minutes of 26 Meetings in
2005 to 2009 of the Member Group on the Leisure Connection Contract,
attended by Councillor Morgan, council officer and LC managers reveals tensions
that led to the Council claiming LC had “reneged
agreements”, warning LC that the contract
was at risk and looking at alternatives to the company for the two leisure
centres. The Council also found that the profit share it had expected was not
realised.
Poor cleaning (e.g. “Smelly
toilets, Dirty floor”) and lack of response
to customer as well as Council complaints were frequent issues.
By
October 2007, the Council
had served 49 rectification notices and at least three "persistent
breach notices" on LC relating to failings and each one these cost LC
at least £100. “It was reported
that, in themselves, “... the notices were minor, however, the amount of shortcomings
build into a much larger problem which causes annoyance to both the clientele
and the Council alike and shows a general neglect of care.” (11 October 2007)
Source documents can be downloaded
from WhatDoTheyKnow.
The date of the meeting is reflected in the file name of the minutes.
Other Issues in the documents
include:
“Officers
had received reports that Leisure Connection staff were informing the leisure
centre complainants that all faults were the responsibility of the Borough
Council. It was agreed at the Client
Contractor Liaison meeting that this was unprofessional and would be stopped.” 11
October 2006
“Engineer’s
reports were not being received with regard to the maintenance of equipment
and, therefore, it could not be determined whether equipment that was being
replaced could instead be repaired. It
was stated that repairs of equipment, ie. showers, were at the expense of
Leisure Connection, but replacements were at the expense of the Borough
Council.” 11 October 2006
“A
concern was raised that the performance indicators were not yet being monitored
and reported. In response, it was stated
that this had been delayed because of the contract status but should now be
started". 15 February 2007
“The
Group were very concerned to read in the local newspaper that Leisure
Connection had awarded a national contract for catering at their managed sites
and had chosen to disregard the Council’s wish that the current operator of the
café at Parklands have their contract renewed.
The newspaper article had also given rise to a clear showing of support
and appreciation for the current operator.” 15 February 2007 This followed LC going into
partnership with a catering company to form Leisure Xtra.
“The
Corporate Director reported that Mr Wilkinson (LC Managing Director) had
finally received his letter; delivery had been delayed through an office
move. Subsequent to the letter and an
e-mail exchange a meeting had been arranged with Mr Wilkinson for Wednesday 20th
June 2007 at which the poor performance standards and reneged agreements would
be fully discussed and explored. The outcome of this meeting would be reported
upon at the Group’s next meeting.” 14 June 2007
“It was
reported that, since the Group’s last meeting, 4 Rectification Notices and 3
Persistent Breach Notices had been issued, all of which had been complied with
by their respective date deadlines, which clearly indicated poor operation by
the contractors.” 14 June 2007
“Mr D
Wild, Managing Director of Leisure Xtra, was invited to join the meeting ...
and to give a presentation on Leisure Xtra’s proposals for providing catering
services at both the Meadowlands and Parklands facilities. Mr Wild stated that
whilst the emphasis would be on providing healthy nutritional food, fried foods
would also be available because some customers would still pay a premium price
for such options. During the presentation it was alleged that Leisure
Connection’s legal representatives had sent a bespoke letter to all owners of
the properties they managed advising them of the impending changes to catering
services and, apparently, offering the opportunity of retaining the current
service provider. The Group were angry
that no such letter had been received especially given the high regard that the
current caterer at Parklands was held by the whole community. Regardless of the alleged letter, the Council
had, additionally, made it known very clearly to Leisure Connection at the
start of the catering review that it wished the current service provider to be
retained but had been told that this was not an option as it was proposed to
introduce a company wide catering provider.
The Group were advised that the current operator would cease in early
July and that, as she would be starting a new venture, would not be
participating in any activities with Leisure Xtra even though some offers had
been made.” 14 June 2007
“Copies
of two letters (to LC) regarding issues relating to the
contract ... were attached to the agenda.
However, no reply had been received to the latter communication. It had been suggested that £29,000 be taken
off the management fee rather than an invoice being sent for the amount
although the latter was stipulated in the contract. It was proposed that an earmarked account be
set up for future works, ie repairs and capital improvements, to which the
£29,000 payment could be put into.” 13 September 2007
“It was
reported that the meeting with Mr Simon Wilkinson, the Operations Manager for
Leisure Connection, had been co-operative.
Prior to the meeting Mr Wilkinson had spoken in a ‘direct manner’ to the
staff. It was understood that the West
Devon contract was, allegedly, the only Leisure Connection contract not
generating an operating surplus, therefore, Leisure Connection would be
actively seeking an improvement in trading and to this end, a new Regional
Manager for the South West had been appointed.”
11 October 2007 “...the Borough Council made it perfectly
clear that the current level of contract performance was unacceptable and very
poor. Leisure Connection, through Mr Howells (LC’s
new Operations Manager),
requested three months in which to turn the position around. In support of this
request, Mr Howells had further reported that the Board of Leisure Connection
was committed to the West Devon contract and to its success. For its part, the Borough Council had stated
that it would maintain pressure on the Company to achieve the improvements
promised within the timescale.” 14 November 2007
“Terry Beckett reported that a number of
possible alternative options for leisure centre management were being
tentatively investigated as a contingency matter to ensure that the Borough
Council was prepared should any contractual difficulties arise. In the meantime pressure would be maintained
on Leisure Connection to achieve their promised improvements within the 3 month
time frame.” 10 January 2008
“In his
e-mail repose Mr Wild (of Leisure Xtra) made reference to the improving
quality of the food and drink with ‘more centre produced food being made
available….have taken steps to ensure the newly appointed manager has the
opportunity to provide either locally sourced or centre prepared cakes and hot
meals’; that price increases were as a direct result of price increases raised
by suppliers and, regarding local suppliers, Mr Wild said that they were trying
to “source local suppliers of dairy, fruit & veg and bakery supplies who
can accept our payment terms. As we pay all our suppliers on a credit basis we
are finding it particularly difficult to locate a high quality supplier who can
accommodate this.” 14 November 2007
Perhaps the difficulty
obtaining suppliers on credit has something to do with Leisure Xtra not paying promptly,
which the extract below suggests is the case with LC.
“Terry
Beckett further reported... a difficulty for the Borough Council in as much
that when trying to engage a contractor to repair the damage, the contractor
asked for payment before starting the work. The contractor had requested this
as Leisure Connection delayed meeting bills until the last possible moment after
the work had been completed...” 14 August 2008
“In
discussions, Mr Farrant (LC CE) appeared to take on board the concerns of the Council
regarding the operation of the contract. Mr Farrant was also interrogated
regarding the profit sharing element of the contract and he advised that any
reasonable profit share payments were unlikely because of increasing utility
costs and the tapering management costs scheme contained within the contract.” 8
May 2008
“Meadowlands
User Group Meeting (11/03/08) - Terry Beckett reported on the meeting of the
Meadowlands User Group held on 11th March 2008. There had been a good level of debate on
topics ranging from the installation of the new cubicles, catering and
operational matters, including that the level of cleanliness had improved. There was some concern, however, in the fact
that a number of items arising from the previous meeting some six months
earlier had not been actioned until the day before this latest meeting.” 8 May
2008
“Terry
Beckett reported that he had issued two Rectification Notices in respect of the
Meadowlands Pool. The first had arisen
through a complaint received from a member of the public concerning the late
opening of the pool on Sunday 8th June 2008 and the poor cleanliness
of the pool and its surrounds. The late
opening had been attributed to staff shortages. The second Rectification
Notice, again regarding the cleanliness, had arisen from a visit that Terry had
made to the pool and referred to an earlier visit when he had pointed out the
poor standard of cleaning.” 12 June 2008
“Terry
Beckett reported on an allegation he had received claiming that two long
serving members of staff at Parklands had not undertaken a Criminal Records
Bureau (CRB) check and an audit of
staff records confirmed this situation to be so. The Rectification Notice required that this
matter be rectified as a matter of urgency and that an investigation be
undertaken to ascertain the reason or reasons for this unacceptable failure. Reporting
on behalf of Leisure Connection, Mr C Perry the Area Contract Manager, said
that the matter had now been resolved and had been caused through a failure by
both the Company and the employees concerned to pursue the completion of the
checks.” 10 July 2008
“Concern
was expressed at the catering being provided and it was agreed that Leisure
Xtra, the caterers for Leisure Connection, be invited to attend the next
meeting.” 14 August 2008
“The
Group received and noted the trading accounts submitted by Leisure Connection
for the Meadowlands Leisure Pool and the Parklands Leisure Centre together with
a summary trading account. Casual scrutiny revealed a number of apparent
discrepancies and it was agreed that Mr Bradbury would raise the issues with
LC’s appropriate officer and report back to a future meeting... The Group received the monthly updated usage
figures for both pools, however, Terry was sceptical about some of the figures
presented and Mr Bradbury agreed to investigate their accuracy. ” 18 September 2008
“...
Leisure Connection did not wish to participate in providing free swimming for
the 16s and under as the proposed financial package from the Government would
not meet the income currently received from this age group.” 16 October 2008
“The
Group received the reports detailing customer complaints and comments and were
concerned that one complainant in particular had had to complain twice as her
original complaint had not been acknowledged and that the problems complained
of were still being experienced.” 14 May 2009
“A copy
of the comments/complaints received in October had been circulated prior to the
meeting... Comment was made on the delay in responding to complaints and felt
there should be a limit of five days. CP acknowledged that responses to
customer comments needed to be much quicker in line with the Leisure Connection
corporate target.” 12 November 2009
PB
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