Agenda item

To comment on the current leisure provision in Buckinghamshire and the emerging Leisure Facilities Strategy and to receive an update on work and plans around Girls and BAME engagement in sport.

Contributors:

Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure

Richard Barker, Corporate Director for Communities

Mark Ormerod, Director, LEAP

Sue Drummond, Head of Leisure

Papers:

Presentation slides

The Committee received an update on the current leisure provision in Buckinghamshire and the emerging Leisure Facilities Strategy. The Committee also heard about work and plans to increase involvement in leisure from groups who historically had low involvement. The Committee had the opportunity to hear from Cllr C Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Richard Barker, Corporate Director for Communities, Sue Drummond, Head of Leisure and Mark Ormerod, Director, Leap. Presentation slides were appended to the agenda pack

During the presentation, the following points were highlighted:

• Prior to introducing the leisure facilities update, the Cabinet Member reported that the swimming pool at Chalfont Leisure Centre was again open for use, a film office was being explored as Buckinghamshire was regularly being used for film and television, the Rye Boathouse was open and six parks had been awarded the Green Flag award. The opening of the Chilterns Lifestyle Centre had been slightly delayed due to supply of handrail which would be a health and safety risk, however there remained excitement around the centres opening in the near future and it was noted that despite covid restrictions throughout construction, work had progressed on the centre as planned.
• Key principles had been set to progress the overall leisure strategy and consideration given to where investment was best placed to encourage participation from those groups less likely to take part in leisure activities. It was emphasised that the strategy not only focused on indoor facilities but would also cover the important areas of playing pitches and open space strategies.
• In addition to the Council leisure provision, Buckinghamshire saw strong leisure provision in the private, voluntary, education and MOD sectors.
• Leap continued to make efforts to bring external funding in to the county, with a focus on investing in supporting behavioural change among residents, where a systemic approach was required, particularly for those groups that found it most difficult to be active. It was noted that whilst the charts on page 24 of the report pack showed Buckinghamshire compared well nationally, these were not significantly large percentage differentials. Since agenda publication further figures had been made available and within the last 12 months there had been a 2.7% increase in adult activity in the county and a 2.4% decrease in inactive people.
• With such a significant number of residents shielding, when people had started to engage in activities again there had been a spike in incidents such as falls where core stability had decreased and this had resulted in injuries such as wrist and hip fractures.
• It had been found that the pandemic had a profound on young people with 16% fewer children reporting having taken part in sport than in the previous year, although girls had fared slightly better than boys who had usually been involved in more traditional team sport games.
• Approximately 400 organisations were involved in helping to deliver activity programmes in Buckinghamshire to support the four broad principles on page 27 of the report pack. The Council and Leap worked with mental health charities, housing organisations, Age UK and a broad range of partners. There were 119 satellite clubs across the county offering the best chances for young people to get involved with sport and there was a drive with DfE funding to open up more school facilities after school to young people and communities.
• Leisure centre usage was at around 70% of pre-covid levels which was significantly better than forecast and resulted in a smaller financial loss to the Council than had been planned for over the first five months of this financial year. There had been a high demand for swimming, and the covid related restriction to book a swimming lane had been really popular and given users confidence when using facilities. Swimming lessons were also seeing high demand.
• Buckinghamshire had seen significant investment in centres at Chalfont and Chesham with facilities having been improved at Risborough Springs and Court Garden as well. The new Chilterns Lifestyle Centre would also be opening in the coming weeks. As part of this strategy the leisure facilities at Aqua Vale, and the Buckingham Swan would be assessed to see what improvements may be required and expansions required to meet the growing housing population in the north of the county.
• The wider benefits of physical activity were highlighted with improved jobs and volunteering, fewer GP visits, improved educational attainment, prevention of ill health and improved mental wellbeing all being linked to being physically active.
• In terms of indoor facilities, there was a higher concentration of facilities in the south of the county and it was explained that Sport England set principles on recommended journey times for residents which show 90% of people should be within reasonable distance of a facility, although this may be a school facility, or a facility in a neighbouring authority.
• It was noted that should appropriate outdoor provision be in place for playing pitches this could create more indoor space for activities so the strategy would look further in to solutions such as this. Work was also ongoing to look at potentially maximising public access to facilities at school sites outside of school areas as there were a number of education providers with the capacity to offer more in this area, although there was often local resident opposition to nearby schools being used in the evenings for leisure activities.
• Through discussions with national sport governing bodies there were sports looking to expand such as gymnastics and netball and Buckinghamshire as a place could be repurposed to support this expansion.

Following the presentations, questions and comments were raised by the Committee. These included:

• In response to a query on how the older population could be better supported, the Committee was advised that the Council and Leap worked closely with expert clinicians and carers. Through partnership working with the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire West Integrated Care System, front line clinicians and carers had received training on the benefits of physical activity with around 1400 people having received active medicine training. Leap had been able to fund this training for a number of people. Leap had worked with public health and the Community Boards to issue 10,000 activity packs to the homes of elderly residents promoting staying active and these had been well received. Digital support was also said to be an important factor in the strategy as it was an excellent tool to combat loneliness for older residents. Planning design would also take account of practical issues such as making sure there was adequate toilet access and seating. 
• A member raised that new retirement living developments, were often now built to include wellness centres and officers agreed to discuss this provision with the Public Health team to ensure residential offerings were being captured where necessary.
• How the Council worked with developers was discussed. Where Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was in place in the county there was additional flexibility on spend whereas Section 106 contributions were more limited in how they could be used. Additionally, where developments were required to include education settings this fed in to the ambition for long term community access arrangements to be in place with these settings for their leisure facilities.
• The importance of the emerging Buckinghamshire Local Plan was raised as this would significantly assist in the understanding of population/housing growth, particularly in the north of the county and would be helpful in identifying areas needs for playing pitches and facilities. Members were told that the strategy would closely interlink with the Local Plan and planning policy. The Council assets in the north were of good quality but were worn and did not offer significant capacity for future growth so specific programmes would be explored including working with the Buckingham University to explore opportunities for growth with the Swan Pool.
• The Cabinet Member added that he would like the Council to encourage more personal trainers to become wellness trainers to assist in restoring people’s confidence when it came to taking up exercise and this would in turn reduce strain on GPs, an option was link health hubs in to the leisure strategy. There was concern raised that the 6.5 miles radius set by adult social care for a resident to reach a hub would still be a difficult journey for many groups and town and parish council leisure provision would therefore remain important for these groups.
• The importance of getting young people involved in sport at an early age was spoken of, with the financial costs being one of the obstacles for parents. Accessibility of provision was said to be key in the strategy, legacy councils had varying approaches to their fees and charges, however work was ongoing with leisure operators to achieve a level of consistency across the county and meet needs through facility offerings. The Cabinet Member was also progressing a new ‘Bucks Card’ for residents which should help promote awareness of leisure offerings.
• The Committee recognised work undertaken by legacy councils in producing rolling programmes of investment and regeneration to ensure that facilities remained income generators and suggested these as a model for the Cabinet Member and officers to look at. Further, whilst it appeared in the presentation that the north of the county lacked provision, a member noted that the legacy Council had encouraged parishes to fund their own provision due to it being a large rural area so there were a number of facilities in addition to the council provision outlined on the map.
• The Committee raised concern around the transparency of legacy council use of CIL and section 106 contributions, and the Cabinet Member advised that this issue would be reported to Cabinet to ensure that there was transparency moving forward. The Committee were advised that the Cabinet was working across portfolios and was aware of work ongoing which affected different areas of the Council.
• There was a target to develop offers which promoted a wide breadth of use to meet the needs of different sports and to squeeze the most out of each facility so that they were financially viable. It was noted that Sport England was a statutory consultee on all open space planning applications. The areas identified as higher need would be explored further with an aim to make specific proposals. There had been pressure for football pitches due to a number of successful teams in the Aylesbury area but there was an awareness this needed to be balanced out to encourage involvement across all sports.

Recommendation

The Committee recommended that Leap link in with Community Board Co-ordinators so that Community Boards were made aware of the training available through Leap to individuals in the community so that in instances where a GP recommends exercise to a patient there could be more qualified individuals who could support those starting to exercise.