Leisure makes a difference in Antrim and Newtownabbey

A deep-dive into how Antrim and Newtownabbey Council have created an award-winning leisure service that supports the local community at every life stage.

The renowned leisure team at Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Northern Ireland, just added another trophy to their collection thanks to an APSE Annual Service Awards win. And yet the driving force behind their success is powerfully simple: a belief that leisure excellence can make a real difference to citizens’ lives.

Their Best Service Team: Sports, Leisure and Cultural Service win joins their Ukactive Regional Centre of the Year achievement and comes at a time of major investment running alongside ambitious programmes all geared towards providing world-class leisure facilities to every user regardless of age.

But it’s not just the team’s latest range of leisure options making waves in the Borough. While these include an impressive six leisure centres plus golf courses, a running track, pitches, a spa and one of the UK’s largest skate park facilities, excellence in how those services are delivered is key.

That’s because the leisure team’s dedication to customer service and efficiency, used to help keep costs for services low and availability high, is a big part of the leisure team’s achievement.

The Council’s Antrim Forum Leisure Centre just launched a £2.4m fitness suite refurbishment, complete with Inclusive Fitness Initiative accreditation. In addition, a £1.5m investment including two fitness studios and an athletics facilities upgrade as well as a transformed swimming pool and changing area are all on the way. And despite investment on this level, ‘MORE’-branded membership costs haven’t risen in over five years.

The reason for such a clear belief in top quality, accessible leisure facilities for all? Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Councillor Mark Cooper BEM summed up the Council’s passion for leisure when he explained that “we have seen countless lives transformed through the use of our leisure facilities over the years”.

An Active Borough

With a Council-wide belief that leisure-services should be affordable, accessible and universally available to all, the Council’s 150 leisure colleagues are charged with an area of work specifically chosen by Elected Members as one of the Council’s key priorities.

That’s why targets for usage, memberships and subsidy per visit were set along with goals for efficiency, excellence in service, energy consumption, participation and health outcomes as well as continuous innovation.

For the end-user, evidence of the final goal can be seen through the launch of new leisure products and programmes such as the SkatePark urban sports centre, Toptracer golf and MyWellness technology.

And an emphasis on life-long leisure, and how it can support real needs at every life stage, is shown through the PARS (Physical Activity Referral Scheme) introduction to exercise project, Macmillan Move More Cancer rehabilitation support, Live Long age-friendly classes and Exercise for Mental Health. All of the team’s delivery has, of course, been achieved in the face of a common challenge for many organisations in 2023: providing excellent, affordable services during a time of both rising operating costs and tighter household budgets for service users.

Thankfully, rising year on year MORE membership of 21% and a falling subsidy per visit of 8% has helped create a membership price freeze since 2017 possible and even allowed substantial investment in upgraded facilities.

Offering access to sporting facilities and fitness classes across five state of the art leisure centres, a range of MORE memberships across individual, family, concession, golf and corporate options have helped making the decision to join easier than ever for a huge range of people within the Borough. Measuring Success The leisure team’s ‘bottom line’ stats reflect the hard work and dedication of a highly-ambitious leisure team. After all, a19% penetration rate has risen 3% showing just how popular their leisure offer is in the Borough.

Measuring Success

The leisure team’s ‘bottom line’ stats reflect the hard work and dedication of a highly-ambitious leisure team. After all, a19% penetration rate has risen 3% showing just how popular their leisure offer is in the Borough.

Listening to users also reveals the out workings of service excellence:

• A Net Promoter Score of 63%

• ‘Courtesy’ (94%) and ‘staff’ (80%) appearing as major factors in this score

• Quest Plus accreditation across all six leisure centres

Meanwhile, with sustainability a major focus for Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council its leisure team have been playing their part through an Energy Action Plan for each leisure centre and an on-site Energy Champion. The resulting 5% decrease in consumption has meant centres have been able to keep full opening hours, including for swimming pool facilities, despite the cost of living crunch.

Ambitious Plans for 2023/ 2024

As a team with no intention of resting on their laurels, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s leisure experts have set some big goals for the remainder of 2023/ 2024, including:

• A Net Promoter Score increase of three points to 66% across leisure

• Membership of 14,000

• New post/ pre-natal, alcohol and substance abuse and pulmonary programmes plus swimming lessons for those with a disability.

Meanwhile, in addition to the further upgrades planned for Antrim Forum, £50,000 has been earmarked for enhancements to fitness facilities at the Valley Leisure Centre.

In the words of Mayor Cllr Mark Cooper, who welcomed his team’s APSE awards win as “well-deserved success for our leisure team who have been recognised for the excellent services they provide”, the Council’s commitment to deliver a world-class leisure offering is “very evident through the multi- million pound investments across our leisure facilities”.

He added that “greater use than ever of our superb facilities, as well as such an impressive range of leisure offerings and programmes for so many people, make our leisure services the pride of our Council and the recipient of multiple awards for good reason”. While very high standards to maintain have been set by this now acclaimed team, their insistence on demanding the best from leisure, and belief in its value for all, means their track record of finding new ways to provide best-in-class services is showing no signs of abating.

Watch this space!

Deaglan O’Hagan, Head of Leisure Operations, and Matt McDowell, Director of Parks and Leisure, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, spoke on the Council’s achievements at the APSE Northern Ireland event “Active Communities” on 30 November. Their presentation is available to download from the APSE website.