Fears over no plan B to privatising Dudley leisure centres as 'every facility makes a loss'

The authority insists no decision has been made about whether to hand running of centres in Dudley, Halesowen and Stourbridge over to private companies however councillors hit out that no alternative scheme is on the table.

The process of inviting bids to take over leisure centres was in the spotlight at September’s meeting of the council’s Environment and Regeneration Select Committee where a report on the future of the facilities was slammed by committee members.

Councillor Cathryn Bayton said: “There is not enough detail in this report, I don’t understand what plan B is meant to look like.

“You said no decision has been taken to outsource, you are merely going out to test the market, if you don’t have a plan B that you are working on alongside outsourcing, we are in no better financial position as we move through.”

The report’s author, Dudley’s director of digital, customer and commercial services, Luisa Fulci said: “You asked for a plan B, it’s really difficult, we do need to explore that.

“The options are not always palatable in this area, we need to work on that further and come back to you.”

Committee chairman, Councillor Asif Ahmed shared Councillor Bayton’s concerns, he said: “It may not go the way the council hopes so you’d like to think, especially given the financial circumstances that we are currently in, that we’d be a bit more proactive.

“If we are saying a decision hasn’t been made and yet we are not looking at other options, there is a perception there that maybe this is the only way we are going to go.”

The council launched a programme seeking bidders to take over the centres back in July and a shortlist of applicants was selected.

Those applicants are now preparing tenders which have to be submitted by November 8.

After a further round of negotiations the council will choose whether to go ahead with outsourcing in March 2025.

Council-run leisure services are expected to make a £2.5m loss in the current financial year which will be subsidised by taxpayers.

Councillor Keiran Casey said: “It’s just a mess, it’s quite amazing that every single facility makes a loss, it really is quite shocking.

“We say no decision has been made but there is no plan B.

“The report is very clear that the subsidies are unaffordable and basically the council can’t continue to operate in this way.

“I’m not convinced everything has been done to avoid the situation we are in now.”

Ms Fulci pointed out councils cannot run leisures as commercial ventures due to factors which include regulations on public sector pay and conditions.

She added: “We keep prices artificially low because we are a council provider – in Dudley there is an abundance of leisure centres, it’s a very complex market.”