Chief executive running Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre welcomes Government funding for Suffolk's swimming pools

A leisure centre boss has spoken of the challenges faced by operators in the wake of the Chancellor's announcement of nearly £63 million for swimming pools.

Warren Smyth, chief executive of Abbeycroft Leisure which runs Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre, Haverhill Leisure Centre and the Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Sudbury, spoke of the need to create an 'efficient model' after last week's Budget outlined funding for swimming pools to help them deal with immediate cost pressures.

The funding will also allow pools to invest in renewable energy strategies, with the aim of reducing fuel consumption.

Mr Smyth, who has been chief executive of Abbeycroft Lesiure for 14 years, said he understood that the £63 million funding will be targeted at public leisure centres with pools.

Reacting to the budget announcement, he said: "It is brilliant news, it has been lobbied for, for quite some time and I think it acknowledges it (the cost or running pools and leisure centres) is not just a local issue, it is a national one."

He added: "The devil is in the detail and we will wait for more information to be announced, we shall see what impact it has locally."

Abbeycroft Leisure, has pools at six of its sites across Suffolk, including two at the award-winning Mildenhall Hub which opened in 2021.

Mr Smyth, said ahead of the budget announcement Abbeycroft Leisure were looking at ways of reducing energy consumption, due to the high prices of utility costs – something they will continue to do.

He explained: "We are working across the board in relation to creating an efficient model."

The social enterprise is looking at new stakeholders that may be able to use their leisure centres as well as potentially adapting what they offer for families.

Mr Smyth said examining costs was something Abbeycroft Leisure had to do anyway like all companies, emerging from the financial pressures of the pandemic.

"Unfortunately we had to make a very difficult decision as we came out of Covid to reorganise our staffing and that has put us in a better position than if we hadn't done that."

Funding from local councils is now helping to protect jobs at leisure centres, and Mr Smyth said he is feeling hopeful he won't have to make any similar staff changes in the future.

Highlighting the importance of local authority funding, he said: "I can't be more grateful enough for the way they value their leisure assets and the role they play in the communities health and wellbeing.

"We understand pricing is a key issue for communities when they access our services, there is only so much you can push a price point before it becomes unaffordable, that affordability is different for different members of the community depending on their circumstances.

"We are really sensitive about pricing, we moved our price points last year, and we will have an annual price increase."

In 2022, Mr Smyth said the price increase was larger than what customers have seen in previous years – due to inflationary pressures.

He added that this year price increases could have been really high but due to funding from local councils, and the recent budget announcement, they should be more manageable.

This should mean the price of things like swimming lessons should 'not stop people taking part'.

Abbeycroft Leisure also offers concessionary programmes and works with charities to make services accessible to vulnerable members of the community.

Looking to the future of Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre

Across the country, chief executives of public leisure centres are already coming up with inventive ways or reducing energy costs.

Earlier this month, the national media reported on a leisure centre in Devon, where the pool is now heated by energy created by a small data centre.

Elsewhere in England there is even a pool heated by a nearby crematorium.

Mr Smyth, described the concepts as 'interesting' and said that he and his team at Abbeycroft Leisure are keen to make use of of different ideas.

He continued: "Lots of leisure operators, and ourselves, are looking at the best ways to mitigate long term issues surrounding energy costs."

Following the successful opening of the Mildenhall Hub, plans are under way for a similar facility on Western Way in Bury St Edmunds.

Last week West Suffolk Council's cabinet voted unanimously to allow the plans for Western Way development to progress to the second stage of tendering.

This only refers to the initial phase of the development, which includes a fun pool, eight-lane main pool, and a large learner pool.

"Most leisure facilities were build back in the 1970's, at the time they were built they were most probably efficient," said Mr Smyth.

"But in today's day and age, actually upgrading them makes them more energy efficient and the Western Way plan has a number of renewable strategies to make sure it reduces CO2 emissions."

"New facilities are generally more efficient, we’ve seen that in the Mildenhall Hub, we are very lucky, it is a very energy efficient site.

"In some of our old buildings, we have solar panels on the roof, which local authorities have installed, and that has helped us reduce our consumption of energy."

Abbeycroft Leisure is a not-for-profit social enterprise, which means it re-invests any financial surplus back into its services.