Leisure centre to reopen on Monday as council sets contingency budget

Godalming Leisure Centre will reopen next Monday, 17th August.

The news came as Waverley approved a revised contingency budget at an extraordinary full meeting of the council last night.

Uncertainty had surrounded the centre when it failed to reopen after being given the go-ahead by the government on July 24th.

Waverley later said it was working with leisure provider Places Leisure on a financial package to ensure the centre could continue to operate.

At last night's meeting, 49 councillors supported the Executive's recommendation to approve the contingency budget, which was drawn up to address the council's £6.6 million projected shortfall in its in-year budget.

As the Coronvirus pandemic unfolded the council was badly hit, as income from leisure centres, car parks and other fees and charges plummeted.

At the same time the authority had to spend cash on supporting vulnerable residents, homeless people and businesses, as well as co-ordinating the response of local volunteer organisations and handling the payment of support grants.

The council will receive a government Covid-19 support payment of £1.4 million, but the contingency budget was needed to agree how it will find the remaining £5.2 million shortfall. The proposals included spending cuts, savings on staff salaries through a continued recruitment freeze, and the use of over £3m of the council's reserves.

The contingency budget was put together using only the confirmed amount of government financial support. On 2nd July the government announced it would give compensation for some lost income from fees and charges but details of the amount that Waverley may receive are still not known.

Councillor Mark Merryweather, the Portfolio Holder for Finance at Waverley, said: "What we have managed to achieve in the past few months has been a true community effort.

"We are incredibly proud to have supported this borough through this emergency and will continue to do so in the future. I am pleased that people will be able to get back to visiting our much-loved leisure centres from 17th August. Although there will be some changes to usual operations to ensure visitors' safety, it is a sign that some normality is returning.

"However, we cannot ignore the financial impact this pandemic has had on our finances.The estimated effect just for this year is over £6 million, which is a vast portion of our budget; for context, the shortfall is equivalent to just under half of the council's net annual budget for 2020/21.

"A huge amount of work is going into managing this, and it's not over by any means. We've acted sensibly and responsibly and that is why we're making sure we're prepared to mitigate the projected shortfall.

"It is beyond a shame we still don't know any more about the government support funding announced over a month ago now, other than that it will not cover the whole of our shortfall. This is very disappointing after we were promised that councils would not be left short of funds."

During the meeting, which was held via Zoom, councillors agreed that a full revision of its medium term financial plan, which sets out the council's spending plans over the next five years, should be undertaken and reported back on in December.

Cllr Merryweather added: "Before the coronavirus pandemic we were already looking to make total savings of more than £5 million per year by 2023/24, to compensate for planned cuts to our funding by government.

"Now, on top of the impact of coronavirus and other uncertainties that lie ahead, it is inevitable there will be many more difficult decisions to make."