Haringey Council set to take back control of borough leisure centres

Long-running maintenance issues have led the council to terminate its contract with external provider Fusion Lifestyle, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Tottenham Green Pools & Fitness and (inset) cabinet member Emily Arkell

Haringey Council has agreed plans to insource the management of three borough leisure facilities after a series of maintenance issues led to the early termination of an outsourcing contract with Fusion Lifestyle.

The council will begin to run Tottenham Green Pools and Fitness, Park Road Pools and Fitness in Crouch End, and Broadwater Farm Community Fitness Centre in Tottenham, once a one-year notice period on its existing contract with Fusion ends in October 2024.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting last night (Tuesday 5th) when the decision was agreed, Haringey’s cabinet member for culture, communities and leisure, Emily Arkell, explained the advantages of the switch and the work the council has carried out to ensure a smooth tranistion.

“We’ll be looking very carefully at how our leisure centres are run, what we provide, and we’ll be listening to our residents,” she said.

Cllr Arkell added that bringing these services in-house made sure the council was democratically accountable, and would directly tackle issues plaguing the borough such as social isolation, loneliness and health inequalities.

Supporting the move, deputy leader Mike Hakata said: “Having control of our leisure services is the right step, we live in the borough, we understand and use the services ourselves, [and] this is the way we can provide the best service.”

Cllr Arkell added that insourcing allowed the council to co-locate its services and work with partners like the NHS and public health team to provide them. Residents could also be signposted by the partners on the range of services the council offered.

Speaking on the council’s relationship with Fushion Lifestyle, Cllr Arkell said: “We are meeting with them very regularly and continuing to monitor their delivery on a weekly basis.”

Cllr Arkell added that the council had looked at other boroughs that had insourced their leisure provisions including Hounslow, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets, to inform their own takeover.

She said the council had in-house knowledge and staff with experience of runnning leisure services, explaining there were currently people working in the council who ran the service a decade ago, when it was last provided internally.

Cllr Arkell mentioned a technical survey was carried out at Park Road Pools and Fitness within the last twelve months and said this would also happen at other leisure facilities to understand their condition.

The council has now budgeted to spend £7.5million over the next five years on improving and maintaining all leisure facilities, of which £3.6million will be spent in year one.

Tottenham Green Pools and Fitness in particular has been plagued by maintenance problems for months.

Another item discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday was the council’s current financial position.

Speaking about the council’s finances for the second quarter of this year, cabinet member for finance Dana Carlin said that despite successful cost reduction efforts the increase in the cost of borrowing meant the council was still overspending on its budget.

Cllr Carlin said: “We’re working to bring down imminent spending, we do have contingency reserves put aside specifically for these situations, we don’t want to dip into them, but we’ll have to look it in order to close this gap.”

The council’s housing strategy for 2024-2029, which sets out the authority’s vision for housing in the area, was also discussed at the cabinet meeting. Ruth Gordon, cabinet member for housing, said that out of 706 responses to a consultation on the strategy there was a high approval rating of their objectives.

Cllr Gordon said: “In terms of intermediate housing provision of housing, we are responding to what the needs are in the borough and those needs are split evenly. We have social housing provision, the private renting sector and private accommodation, and we’ve tried to accommodate for all of that.”

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