Lewisham to award leisure contract in unscheduled decision

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/18637302.lewisham-mayor-cabinet-approve-leisure-contract/

Well spotted Chris. I wonder what they have in store for us. I dread to think actually.

It seems that, as a resident constituent, you will be the last to know.

Dare we hope that the contract is going to a new contractor that will manage the leisure centres better than it appears Fusion have done in the case of Forest Hill Pools?

seconded! Too many broken promises by manger after manager and classes cancelled last minute and filth in changing areas finally caused me to cancel my membership.
Sad because I’d love a gym round the corner from my home

Certainly sounds like a possibility. Maybe the gyms being closed has given Lewisham council and / or fusion a no penalty get out on contract option.

Or maybe fusion have said they can’t reopen as things stand so this is a renegotiation.

Or maybe as above but the contract is going elsewhere.

Whoever takes it over is going to have difficulties, many classes can’t run, or will do with smaller numbers and you’d have to expect further lockdowns and not sure you’d be able to insure for any loss of business so you’d think some subsidies will be required.

Does anyone understand the financial model? If you are a gym member in Forest Hill, does your fee go to Forest Hill gym, or to a central fund at Fusion from where it is reallocated?

Hi can you let me know which classes were cancelled at the last minute and why? Thanks

The income will go onto the centre’s P&L but the income will flow up to the central business of course

Typically in London operators like Fusion pay a fee to the council each year for the privilege of operating leisure centres, so they need to make a profit large enough to also pay for this.

Aqua aerobics several times and once when we were all changed and waiting in the pool-no reason given if my memory serves…I kind of gave up booking classes there after a while and then after management changes and the changing rooms still being filthy ladies toilets poolside a particular disgrace I just gave up bothering with the place and went elsewhere.

Does anyone know if a decision has been taken?

I think you missed the point of ‘secret meeting’!

According to the meeting details on the council website they made a decision which takes effect on 19th August but what the decision was is anyone’s guess at the moment!

image748×229 20.7 KB

From your screenshot it says 19th August so in 3 days time…

Thanks - I’ve amended my posting!

I suppose I’ll just have to wait for the investigative journalists at the News Shopper to discover what’s going on.

Sadly Bridie Witton (local democracy reporter for the BBC & newshopper) has moved to New Zealand, otherwise I’m sure she would have been all over this.

Sorry to hear that. If it had been studio classes like Bodypump I can assure you would never have been let down. They must’ve had an unreliable aqua instructor/& or there was no communication relayed & they couldn’t cover at the last minute.
It must’ve been really frustrating especially if you’d already changed.
Best regards

So, the council has decided behind closed doors, and they’re not going to reveal the decision yet:

Is anyone able to translate the second para (from the News Shopper report) into plain English?

Mayor and cabinet awarded the contract behind closed doors last week (August 12) in an unscheduled meeting and has yet to release the contractor’s name.

The contract comes into effect today (August 19) if the business panel did not call in the decision last night, which is likely, as though the result has not been published the call-in meeting of mayor and cabinet scheduled for next week has been cancelled.

Should it read “although the result has not been published”?

The article is saying that the call-in meeting of mayor and cabinet, which was previously scheduled for next week, has been cancelled. Therefore they are guessing that the decision was not called in, and so it is likely that the contact came into effect today (August 19th).

Hopefully that is clearer.

So they schedule the ‘call-in’ in case any councillor objects? I guess they needn’t have, they all toe the party line.

I find the smaller pool is regularly closed due to ‘lack of staff’ or ‘being too cold’.

Waterbabies (who attempted to run classes there) will probably have a good log of exactly when their lessions were cancelled due to lack of Fusion staff or problems with the heating.

Eventually we gave up and joined the classes at Wavelengths in Deptford.