Striking gold: redeveloping facilities for the public good

By not being tied to a leisure developer, we were also able to control the cost of the builds and to dictate facility mixes to suit local demographics. We brought in a team of specialist contractors to design and build the facilities in line with the Council’s own strategic brief focused around the needs of the community. Using a SCAPE construction framework process, we significantly reduced the time taken up with tendering.

Financing and building the new facilities directly has also given the Council the freedom to re-negotiate the terms under which they are managed. Prior to the redevelopment programme, we were paying leisure contractors to run facilities under outdated management contracts. Now, leisure operators pay the Council an annual management fee to operate each facility and a share of income linked to performance outcomes, such as gym memberships.

Building these new leisure and sports facilities has not been just about generating a new income stream. There are also public health benefits. Statistics show that 63.7 per cent of St Albans residents are achieving more than the recommended minutes of activity per week, above the national average of 61 per cent.

Buoyed by the success of the leisure redevelopment programme, the Council then began to focus on finding funding to redevelop cultural facilities as well. The transformation of a grade II* listed old town hall into the new St Albans Museum + Gallery has been made possible due to Heritage Lottery funding. 

The Council also turned property developer to raise additional funding for the project, redeveloping the museum’s former Victorian home into housing for sale at market rates. A similar development approach is now being taken to help fund a new cultural centre in Harpenden, with plans to turn the old public halls building into housing.

Once the Harpenden project is completed, the Council will have created four new sports and leisure centres, a new museum and gallery and a cultural centre in less than a decade. It will also have created a new £1m income stream to underpin Council revenues for the future.

For more information on how to redevelop your sports and leisure facilities, please contact Rob Bailey on [email protected] or call 0161 772 1810.

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