Adur’s leisure centres to cost over £350,000 to fill following company’s collapse

Adur Community Leisure (ACL) operated services at Lancing Manor and Southwick leisure centres, as well as Wadurs Community Pool in Shoreham, but went into voluntary liquidation in July.A report to Adur and Worthing Councils’ joint strategic committee has revealed the councils are putting aside £353,000 to fund the management of the sites and search for a new operator.

Before ACL’s collapse, it had asked the councils for £1million of additional funding to help it recover from lockdown.

The councils said they planned to reject the request due to fears over the financial stability of the company, but a late change to ACL’s bid meant a decision was never formalised.

This latest report shows the councils spent £9,750 on consultants to review ACL’s contract, part-funded by Sport England.

Additional funding has now been requested to manage the empty leisure centres until the end of the financial year; consultancy support for finding a short term supplier and a strategic review of the long term plan for the facilities; leasing costs for ACL’s old equipment and money to buy ACL’s old equipment.

The report said some of £786,000 of emergency government funding will be used to cover the costs.

After entering liquidation, ACL’s assets were taken over by liquidator Smith Williamson, which made all but one member of staff redundant and took steps to pay back the company’s creditors.

But the liquidator has agreed not to sell on the leisure centres to allow the councils to find new tenants, with the councils footing the £13,000 a month bill to maintain and insure the buildings.

In the short term, the councils’ report said the plan is to agree shorter contracts to fill the centres given the ‘extreme urgency’.

The report said: “Seeking to let a shorter term emergency contract will also provide time for the council to fully assess the type of leisure service that it would like to support in the future, and to review its facilities with the aim of developing a leisure investment strategy.”

The aim is to appoint one company to run all three centres.

The councils’ joint strategic meeting will meet on Tuesday (September 8) to discuss the release of £353,000 in funding and agree the next steps in finding a new operator.