Future options about the management and costs of publicly-owned leisure and arts centres in Pendle are being considered by councillors.

Leisure venues, services and staff, from gym and swimming pool instructors to theatre workers, are important issues for Pendle Council linked to finances, health and sports, arts and entertainment, town centre regeneration and visitors.

It owns Pendle Leisure Centre in Colne, Pendle Wavelengths in Nelson, West Craven Sports Centre in Barnoldswick, Seedhill Athletics Track and Fitness Centre near Nelson, and Marsden Park Golf Course, along with Colne Municipal Hall, a theatre and music venue which has just had a revamp along with other Colne theatre spaces in a levelling-up deal under the previous Conservative government.

Pendle Council typically spends around £1.9 million a year to subsidise the arms-length Pendle Leisure Trust to run venues and services, according to a report for the borough’s cabinet.

This year, costs are expected to be slightly higher with repairs and maintenance, and future forecasts expect the figure to rise.

This summer, an outside consultancy called Strategic Leisure was appointed to assess leisure options and has reported back. Now, councillors are being asked to look at different management options.

Building costs, staff costs, income from customers, grants from NHS and lottery organisations, business rates costs, energy efficiencies and emissions from heating systems are among the factors to consider.

The report states: “Leisure spending is a high proportion of the council’s stretched revenue position.

"Determining a clear way forward for leisure, which is both financially and environmentally sustainable, is a key issue.

"Exploring alternative operational models to Pendle Leisure Trust enables the council to understand whether other models are more cost-effective.”

Pendle Council could keep leisure centre activities in-house with the leisure trust, establish a new organisation called a local authority trading company (LATCo), or outsource management to a leisure contractor.

With outsourcing, cash benefits could come from business rates savings and spreading overheads across various contracts, such as with staff HR, marketing and training functions, the report states.

With a LATCo, there would also be business rate savings but all overheads would sit against one contract, it adds.

Keeping services in-house would not create business rate savings, would have higher staff costs and be less commercial. Leisure trust staff are better-paid than some elsewhere under other employers.

Using an outsourced agency would bring business rate savings; has the greatest ability to ‘spread’ overheads across different contracts and would be designed to achieve VAT benefits.

But other considerations include legal costs of any big change, the impact in future grant bids to NHS or lottery bodies, and the community and social benefits of different options for Pendle residents.

The report adds: “Given Pendle Council has decided to retain all its exiting leisure centre sites, there is a need to identify what it wants to achieve from these and their operation.

"If it simply wants the most cost-effective operational model it should outsource. If it wants to continue providing community-based services and facilities it could outsource these and specify the services required, or it could retain the leisure trust model which already delivers significant social return on investment at £22.99 for every £1 invested in the leisure trust.

“The leisure trust currently attracts large amounts of external funding to positively impact the community, including from Lancashire County Council, NHS Lancashire Care and Big Lottery. This was £1,079,798 over the last five years. Some of these grants would not be possible under a different operator model.”