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As the scaffolding and security fences slowly come down on the
site of the gleaming new Clissold Leisure Centre, the gasps are not so much of admiration,
but of 'Why so long?' and 'How much?' The saga of the new Clissold Leisure Centre - whose
opening date, now a year and a half overdue, is still uncertain - has been surrounded by a
wall of silence equal to that of the Kremlin in its worst years.
Hackney Council claims that an ongoing dispute with the contractors prevents it from
making any public statement on either costs or timetable. Sport England, declining to
comment on these matters, simply asserted that Sport England's contractual agreements with
the Council are 'not in the public domain'. And in an article in the Architects Journal on
9 March 2000, the architects responsible bluntly refused to discuss the financial problems
of Clissold Leisure Centre, saying, 'We do not want to fuel further rumour about this
issue.'
Strange therefore to remember that Hackney Council insisted at the outset that 'the
success of the Clissold Leisure Centre depends upon the active participation of local
people in the project.' Go figure.
Meanwhile the District Auditor has sharply criticised Hackney Council in his annual report
for allowing Clissold Leisure Centre to overspend by an astonishing £10.6m, which, given
that originally the centre was only going to cost £10m (£13m by the time the contract
was signed), seems to indicate serious mismanagement somewhere.
Rumour has it that the total bill is now approaching £21 million, half of which will have
to be found from Hackney council tax payers, by cutting other services, and selling off
more of the family silver.
Things, then, couldn't be worse, or could they? Another rumour has it that despite being
intended to be self-financing in revenue terms - because of all the state of the art
fitness equipment, squash courts, sauna and jacuzzi rooms for hire at commercial rates, as
well as the two swimming pools - in fact it will need further subsidy, if it is to fulfil
its community obligations.
It is worth remembering that the Council's own leisure strategy stated that it operated in
a socioeconomic climate characterised by: high levels of unemployment ... high levels of
social exclusion among young people... high levels of poverty restricting opportunities to
purchase leisure services' (The Hackney Plan 1999 2000).
But where is this money to come from? Clissold Leisure Centre has become a financial
albatross around Hackney Council's neck, into which it has to keep pouring money in order
to get the wretched thing finished. Several Hackney councillors have told me that it is
like a great gaping hole into which council money
is poured by the lorry load, but which never seems to fill up. As a result
massive cuts are being made across the board across all services, causing collateral
damage on an unprecedented scale.
Hackney Council, it seems, is having to decimate Hackney's many long-standing arts and
leisure services in order to save a prestige new lottery project which will almost
certainly be handed over to a commercial operator to run. The irony of this scenario is
not lost on an increasing number of local people.
One unhappy effect of the Council's continuing political in-fighting and corporate
mis-management has been to set different parts of the borough against each other. The
Haggerston Pool Community Action Group claims that the need to bale out Clissold Leisure
Centre was responsible for the abrupt closure on 11 February of the well-known and
well-loved Haggerston Baths (now to be re-opened again after packed protest meetings and
day and night campaigning).
The fact is that today the destinies of all of Hackney's leisure centres are linked. On 1
July the Council is likely to contract out the management of all of the Council's leisure
facilities to a commercial operator, chosen as a result of competition.It is assumed that
the operator will have to find the capital investment needed to bring Haggerston and the
others up to scratch, although of course it will have the showcase Clissold Leisure
Centre, presumably handed to it on a plate.
It is unlikely that Hackney's present Leisure Centre budget is very much more than that
needed to cover the returns on the capital investment which might be needed to be made by
the new operator.Which leaves the crucial question as yet unanswered: where is the money
to come from to underwrite the non - commercial uses of these crucial local health and
sports facilities?
As the District Auditor's most recent report on the Council's abysmal finances notes, the
Council is no more able to handle outside contracts any better than it can manage its own
services: 'Like many other authorities, Hackney is increasingly outsourcing its services
as well as entering partnership arrangements with outside agencies.Whilst such methods can
lead to improvements in service delivery it is vital that those commissioning services
have the required expertise to specify properly and then manage the contract with the
outside providers; this is often not the case at Hackney.'
There is no doubt that, once finally opened, Clissold Leisure Centre will be a landmark
building and a wonderful facility.Yet over £20 million of public money has now been spent
bringing it to fruition, only with the likelihood that it will be handed over to a
commercial operator before it has even opened.
The time has come, surely, for the Ombudsman to join the District Auditor for a bracing
dip.
Ken Worpole is a writer who was a regular user of the old 'Clissold Baths' until it
closed in 1997. His new book, Here Comes the Sun: Architecture and Public Space in 20th
Century European Culture is to be published in September. |
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