NEATH PORT TALBOT Council’s Cabinet has agreed a five-year extension of Celtic Leisure’s contract to run leisure services in the county borough.
The council decided in 2022 to bring leisure services back in-house but the move has been ruled out as the extra costs could have led to cuts across other parts of the council and might even have led to the closure of some leisure services venues.
Trade unions have also now recognised that insourcing is unaffordable.
At their meeting on October 2nd, 2024, Cabinet members were asked to consider these three options:
• Proceed with the insourcing of Celtic Leisure from 1st April 2025.
• Agree a five-year extension of the contract with Celtic Leisure from 1st April 2025 with the current terms and conditions.
• Agree a five-year extension of the contract with Celtic Leisure from 1st April 2025 with additional funding to facilitate the revised staff terms and conditions as per the request from Trade Unions should the Celtic Leisure board be minded to agree.
Cabinet members approved the second option – a five-year contract extension from April 1st, 2025 on current terms and conditions. Council officers made it clear that revised terms and conditions for Celtic Leisure employees would be a matter for the Celtic Leisure management board not the council to decide but it was agreed the council would continue to engage with Celtic Leisure and the Trade Unions to try to help improve staff terms and conditions over the course of the contract, when affordable.
A fundamental part of the second option is the creation of a £1m investment fund, which will be used to improve the offer, drive up income and reduce costs. It is proposed an investment/business plan for the best use of this fund is presented to the council by Celtic Leisure within six months.
Council Cabinet Member for Nature, Tourism and Wellbeing, Cllr Cen Phillips, said: “Working Groups set up to examine this issue looked at ways of ensuring a safe transition for customers and staff while at the same time trying to drive down the costs of transferring which were previously reported as being around £1.5m a year.
“With increasing pressure on the council’s budget – especially with inflation at one point running into double figures and the Welsh Government’s settlement being far below the level of inflation – the implementation date was delayed in the hope the financial climate would settle down.
“As we are all aware, the financial situation continued to get worse and the implementation date had to be moved back again.
“With the predictions for the Welsh Government’s financial settlement for the council looking extremely challenging, each service area of the council is now assessing what savings and efficiencies they can make for the 2025/26 financial year.
“There was concern that adding significant costs for our indoor leisure services would only put more pressure on the council’s budget and would inevitably have led to greater cuts across the rest of the council and across indoor leisure services themselves. This may have included cuts in operating hours, cuts in staff levels and even, in some cases, consideration of closing some venues.
“The decision to extend Celtic Leisure’s contract has been taken so that services and jobs can be protected across the council, while ensuring value for money for local taxpayers.”
