Two Liverpool organisations have applied to manage and operate two of Liverpool’s Lifestyles centres.
In December last year, it was announced that Liverpool City Council was beginning a process which would ask for expressions of interest from external organisations to take over the running of Everton Park and Park Road Lifestyles.
The ambition is for any new service provider to adopt an innovative and sustainable approach, which will ensure the venues remain a vital community asset.
As part of the Community Asset Transfer process, City of Liverpool Gymnastics Foundation has formally submitted an interest in taking over the Park Road venue, and St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust has put itself forward in relation to Everton Park Lifestyles. The City of Liverpool Gymnastics Foundation is already based at Park Road and is one of Britain’s most successful gymnastics clubs, with a worldwide reputation for excellence. St Joseph Multi Academy Trust is responsible for Notre Dame Catholic Academy, which is located next to Everton Park Lifestyles and pupils utilise the centre.
The Council has welcomed the interests from both organisations, and has been working closely with them to complete an assurance and due diligence process, before a final decision on the future of both leisure centres is made.
The continuing process will ensure a comprehensive and robust business plans are submitted, including a continued commitment to community use. Once diligence – from all parties involved – has been undertaken, a recommendation will be presented to Cabinet later this year, which is when a final decision will be made.
Council Tax payers are increasingly having to subsidise the centres – the average cost per visit to Everton Park is £15.85, and for Park Road it is £19.85 – compared to an average of £8.20 per visit for all Lifestyles facilities across the city.
The Lifestyles service must deliver £990,000 of saving as part of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan – but is currently £3.4million overspent each year across all 8 Lifestyles venues.
If the transfers go ahead, staff would be relocated to one of the Council’s Lifestyles fitness centres, including the newly refurbished Peter Lloyd Lifestyles, which reopened its doors earlier this month.
To learn more about the Community Asset Transfer (CAT) process, visit the City Council’s dedicated web pages. The CAT policy and programme has recently been reviewed and updated – this review has no impact on the current process and scoring criteria in place for the Lifestyles Centres.
As well as this process, on Wednesday (24 July) a City Council Extraordinary Meeting takes place at Liverpool Town Hall to debate a motion raised relating to maintaining and improving the Lifestyles estate.
Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, Councillor Harry Doyle said: “To have two strong formal expressions of interest from such well-established and respected Liverpool organisations is a positive step forward.
“As a Lifestyles member myself, I know how important our leisure centres are to our communities. We do have budget pressures, that’s why we took the decision in December 2023 to seek expressions of interest from community organisations, organisations that can access funding we can’t in order to improve and future-proof these vital assets.
“We have a strong track record when it comes to Community Asset Transfers and it’s a process which really empowers communities and local organisations to shape their local area for the better.
“This process still has some way to go, but we hope that we can move forward with a new way of working very soon.”
