Statement following the Live Active Board Meeting - 16 March 2023

This year Live Active Leisure is faced with the most complex range of challenges it has ever faced in over 50 years as a company.  Ageing assets, high and rising inflation, high demand for and increasing cost of energy, the impact of long-term public finance constraints, reduced customer income post Covid and the cost of living crisis.

Dealing with these issues individually would be challenging enough, collectively they represent unprecedented pressures and uncertainty.  A picture which is replicated throughout the UK in organisations such as ours, dealing with the same issues.  

The Company’s Board of Directors met on the 16^th March to consider wide ranging revenue and savings proposals to address these issues.  As has been widely reported these included proposals to close the Leisure Water at Perth Leisure Pool, and to close the Dewars Centre.

I’d personally like to thank the many people who took the time to contact LAL expressing the importance of the Leisure Pool and the Dewars facilities to the Perth community. These included an 11-year-old girl from Scone who wrote ‘there really isn’t anything else in Perth which is fun. Where else can I learn to become an Olympic swimmer’ and A teacher of enthusiastic young people curling in Dewar’s wrote ‘it is all so worthwhile especially when one of my pupils was crowned World Junior Champion this month’

The Board of Directors and I recognise that the services and activities that the Company provide are essential to our communities. They provide a long list of mental and physical health benefits that are well documented, and we understand the importance that these venues and others occupy in our communities.

Therefore, I am pleased to advise that the Board unanimously agreed a range of measures that will mitigate the pressures faced in the coming financial year without the need to close these or any of the other venues owned and operated by the company. 

I’m equally pleased that none of the measures agreed require any redundancies within our skilled and dedicated workforce who work tirelessly to create opportunities for the people of Perth and Kinross to lead healthy and active lives.

Unfortunately, to preserve venues and services, we have reluctantly taken the decision to put our prices up by more than we would have liked. Therefore, customers can expect to see increases of 10-15% on most of our products with additional increases on selected activities.  However, to protect those customers who are most disadvantaged, our charges to those who are in receipt of a concession will be frozen at current levels.

The decisions taken by Perth and Kinross Council on the 1^st March to withdraw a proposed 4% reduction to the Company’s contract fee and to provide £120k additional funding were welcome and assisted in addressing some of the financial pressures faced.

In addition, the Board of Directors agreed to allocate funds from our limited reserves to maintain existing services.  Whilst this helps the immediate pressures for the coming financial year, it does not remove them and the allocation of reserves may not be feasible to repeat in future years.

Customer generated income is vital to organisations like Live Active Leisure to remain viable and sustainable.  Whilst I appreciate these are difficult times, we need your support more than ever, and therefore I would urge anyone who values the provision of our public leisure services to please use your local venue as often as you can.  Not only is this an investment in yourself and your own physical and mental wellbeing, but it’s an investment in your community as every penny spent in one of our venues is reinvested back into the company.

Whilst the measures taken only address the next 12 months, the board believe that this is the correct thing to do and will ensure that the Company is able to work collaboratively and in step with the Council on the various reviews it has announced for this year, including a review of existing leisure and cultural assets. 

The company look forward to engaging positively and proactively with the Council and our communities on this review and to further discussions on the PH2O project to ensure that the best possible physical activity and sports services are delivered across Perth and Kinross within the resources we have available.

David Maclehose

Live Active Leisure Chairperson