Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) will run leisure centres and other sports facilities, currently owned and maintained by Cornwall Council, from April 2017.
Cornwall’s network of 15 leisure centres and sports facilities will be renamed under the Better brand after a successful tender bid by GLL. Tempus Leisure has been managing leisure services on behalf of the authority.
The 25-year deal with GLL will generate more than £10million annually once developments have been completed, according to charitable social enterprise.
The contract brings £23m of investment, including £7.5m to be spent initially across seven centres. Investment in the leisure centres and equipment will be initially financed through council borrowing and repaid to the authority with interest over the life of the contract. The deal is set to save the council £3.5m a year.
Customers will benefit from membership across all sites.
Mark Sesnan, GLL managing director, said: “We are delighted to bring our near quarter century of experience and depth of knowledge of running leisure services to the residents of Cornwall via the Better brand. Cornwall will be the latest region to be added to our growing network of Better leisure centres from Belfast to Cardiff to Cumbria. We exist to get more people more active more often and are proud to show the difference our charitable social enterprise model will bring to leisure in Cornwall.”
Adam Paynter, Cornwall Council’s cabinet member for resources, said: “Firstly I’d like to place on record my thanks to Tempus Leisure for their fantastic work over the years running Cornwall’s leisure facilities in such a professional manner. We have always made it clear that we want to keep leisure centres open in Cornwall but without an ongoing subsidy from the council. By taking the initiative, carefully considering all the options and then going through a vigorous tendering process, we are confident that in awarding this contract to GLL we will secure the future of the council’s leisure facilities.”
Staff already working at the leisure centres will transfer over to the new operator on their existing terms and conditions.
GLL operates over 200 leisure centres in the UK and has more than 20 years of experience.
