Agenda and minutes

The Group noted that Councillor Brian Mattock had sadly passed away recently. A Minute’s Silence was held in his honour and in reflection of his contribution to the Scrutiny Committee and other forums.

Members are requested at the start of the meeting to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered, and are reminded that any such interest should also be declared at the start of an item or during any discussion of the matter concerned.

The Chair reminded Members of the need to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting. The Chair then made a personal, non-prejudicial declaration of interest as his daughter was receiving swimming lessons at the Oasis and is a member of GLL.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 16^th February 2021.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 16^th February 2021 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Please refer to the explanatory notes below.

The deadline for receiving submissions under this item is by 3.00pm two working days prior to the meeting.

The Chair read out a submission from Ms Emma Williams, a Swindon resident, relating to the Oasis Leisure Centre:

(1)          On the first listing application to Heritage England it states threat of development and a pre planning discussion. When did that pre planning discussion take place and who was present at that discussion? Why has that pre planning discussion not been made public?

(2)          Why has there not been any investigation that the closure of the Oasis could breach the Disability Equality Act 2010? Has the social mobility model been applied and has an equality assessment and impact assessment on the closure of the Oasis on disabled people been carried out? No other pools in Swindon have a specially adapted wheelchair, only the Oasis. Some disabled people including children are not able to use the hoists at other pools. By law all children by the time they leave primary school should be able to swim 25 metres. Why has it not been investigated how disabled children are going to continue having their swimming lessons? Ability sport use the Oasis, has it been investigated whether other swimming pools are suitable for them? Why is there no engagement with disability groups regarding this issue?

(3)          Why is Swindon Borough Council land / rent money not being used to maintain the Oasis site currently? Why is the site not being ventilated and heated? Why are the plants not even being watered?

The Chair read out the response from Councillor David Renard, Leader of the Council. A written copy of the response will be attached as an annex to these Minutes.

Councillor Grant and the Chair asked a number of supplementary questions relating to Ms Williams submission. Councillor Renard, assisted by the Chief Legal Officer and Head of Property Assets, responded at the meeting.

The Task Group is recommended to resolve that, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public will be excluded during any discussion under agenda item 5 should it be identified that there could be a disclosure of exempt information, as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Task Group resolved that, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public will be excluded during any discussion under agenda item 6 (Minute 11) should it be identified that there could be a disclosure of exempt information, as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The questions asked of, and responses provided by, Mr Andy Reeves (former Programme Lead at Swindon Borough Council and part of the North Central Swindon Project Board which worked on the devolution of heritage and leisure assets in 2012/2013) were as follows.

Q: Can you give a view about whether you thought at the time that this was the best way to get the investment that was so badly needed in the Oasis? I think a lot of people did agree at the time that the Moirai, subsequently SevenCapital, route was the way forward, but that hasn’t worked out. Was there, at the time, any alternative route we could have taken?

A: Yes there was, and it’s probably worth briefly going through the scope of the Project Board. It was a challenging and tumultuous time, and it was at the point at which the Council was changing its strategy from being a delivery vehicle. It was focusing on the other budget pressure areas and essentially we weren't providing any leisure facilities (that was, almost, the remit at the time).

So the scope, initially, was leisure and community arts, heritage Libraries, youth centres, and even open spaces – but the landscape was very different then. We didn't have Parish Councils so we had to rely on community groups and the private sector. It then all got refined down to the leisure assets, and that was really where are our primary focus was.

In terms of the options that you mentioned (from recollection as it was a very long time ago) we were looking at, I think, either a management contract arrangement (which was a service level agreement between Swindon Borough Council and a private contractor – GLL, Parkwood, Leisure Connection, DC, those sorts of operators), a community use agreement (which would have incorporated the new Charitable Incorporated Organisation model which had just come out then and which looked like a kind of perfect fit for this really), and then finally a long term lease (which was obviously the outcome that we reached).

I had some different views on that model and I did share them with the Board at the time. Essentially, the issue was that we included the Oasis within the overall footprint and I think there was always a risk with the Oasis. There were some quite challenging conversations around why that was because, when we embarked on the project, we had this issue where we agreed we were going on a long-term lease. But actually you had the aims and aspirations of Swindon Borough Council around health inequality and using community leisure centres as a vehicle to support some of those council initiatives, and then you also had the need for the private sector to reach its margins.

So we needed to find something that kind of met in the middle really. So my issue was that by including the Oasis in the wider snow dome, there was all sorts of questions being raised about whether funding would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

The Group was in agreement that investigations in to this matter were now exhausted and asked the Chair to produce a report summarising the evidence considered by it at its two meetings for review before the pre-election period if possible.