Rutland County Council leader Gale Waller on councillors’ tough decisions, including closing Catmose Sports Centre in Oakham
It is with great pleasure that I welcome Rutland’s newest councillor, Liberal Democrat Linda Chatfield, to serve on Rutland County Council, writes Gale Waller, leader of Rutland County Council
Linda will be a great asset to the residents of Oakham North East who elected her and the council as a whole.
People who put themselves forward to be councillors should be applauded and to Linda’s opponents I say, “Thank you for standing”. It is a selfless act being a councillor, requiring time and commitment to do the job well.
The role can also be very challenging. We can never please everyone all the time,to paraphrase the poet John Lydgate. All we can do as honest politicians is our very best at all times.
One of the talking points in the recent by-election was the closure of Catmose Sports Centre. This is a clear example of where it is simply not possible to satisfy everyone.
Knowing the strength of feeling among those who enjoyed using the centre, it would have been more straightforward and much less controversial to simply re-let the contract. By doing this, we could have avoided a difficult choice, as the previous Conservative/Independent coalition did when they re-ran the tendering exercise rather than make a decision.
However, it would have been wrong to do this given the implications on the budget as a whole.
Firstly, we had no bids from potential operators to run the sports centre at nil cost to the council. Of the bids that we did receive, the best required Rutland County Council to give the operator just under £1 million over the lifetime of the contract (£90k a year for each and every year).
The operator would also keep all the fees they charged individuals and clubs to join and use the centre.
Furthermore, there was no guarantee the operator would not come back to the council for even more money if fuel costs went up or they failed to attract a certain number of people to use the facility.
It would have been irresponsible to let a contract on this basis. There was no way to predict future costs and we would not have been able to balance our budget in the medium-term without making drastic cuts to other services.
We are a responsible administration and will get our budget under control but we can’t do that by committing to unbudgeted additional costs.
We have a medium-term financial plan to ensure we reach the point where our income matches our expenditure but we are not there yet and are currently using reserves to balance the budget. We could not make this situation worse by committing to a high-risk leisure contract.
They say that nature abhors a vacuum. Shortly after the announcement that we were not letting a contract to run Catmose Sports Centre, a planning application was submitted to open a gym at the Co-op in Oakham. Once opened, this will provide more choice to Rutland residents, but at no cost to the council.
I cannot finish this December article without wishing every reader a joyous festive season. Public holidays are a time to relax and, whether you are Christian or not, I wish every reader a happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.
