FAQs
- Auchinleck Talbot Youth Football
- Tae Kwon Do Club
- Cumnock Dolphins Swimming Club
- Visions Leisure Centre
- CKElite Gymnastics Club
Why was it necessary to rush through the closure of Auchinleck Leisure Centre with one month's notice?
In reality we actually took three years over this decision. In 2020 we carried out a wider consultation to audit our leisure facilities. We then held another consultation about the specific Auchinleck proposals and options in 2021. The latest report to Cabinet on 25 October 2023 was based on these previous consultations.
We acknowledge that given the passage of time since the last consultation in 2021, we should have carried out further consultation with user groups and wider community and given notice of our intention to proceed to Cabinet in October 2023.
In April 2023 the Auchinleck Academy site was designated "Amber" in its Matrix Assessment due to its condition and high energy consumption. What efforts and funds have been invested in maintenance and alleviating high bills?
At that time Cabinet agreed to hold spending on renewal of components while awaiting the outcome of a review of leisure facilities.
A Cabinet report from October 2021 states that Auchinleck Leisure Centre could be investigated as a possible CoRE Demonstrator project to help offset some costs. What happened to this suggestion?
An investigation into the viability of using the site as a CoRE project for energy generation and the independent review commissioned by East Ayrshire Leisure both found that any such project did not provide sufficient opportunity to offset costs.
Why were users given no opportunity to increase footfall or revenue for the facilities? It seems as if the decision to close was based solely on running costs.
Our Cabinet review approved recommendations which give a clear pathway for provision of leisure facilities in all our communities, reducing financial pressures on the Council in the face of increased costs and demand for all our services. We estimated this would save the Council approximately £400k per year in running costs as well as £6.5m of capital investment needed to keep the facility open. East Ayrshire Leisure Trust realigned the opening hours to try to respond to existing demand within its budgets.
How was the consultation carried out, what was the time period?
Consultation period
From January 2021 to March 2021
East Ayrshire Leisure Trust carried out a variety of online surveys and three focus group sessions.
The focus groups were held via Microsoft Teams due to Covid restrictions in force at the time.
Responses
267 responses were received. Of these 108 people expressed a desire to be involved in further discussions. All user groups were invited to participate, with these groups choosing to attend our sessions:
At these meetings, a variety of options were discussed. As a result, in 2022 an independent consultant was commissioned to provide an opinion on each of the agreed options. The consultant submitted a final report in January 2023.
This year's budget included upgrades to the pitches and lighting. Why has this been halted?
This spending decision was halted pending the outcome of the leisure facilities review. This review took into account ALL synthetic pitches run by East Ayrshire Leisure and owned by the Council. It concluded that the replacement of all synthetic pitches and current maintenance budgets were not sufficient and that future costs would need to be met through additional central funding. By closing these pitches, upgrading and renewal can be carried out to improve provision at other facilities in the area.
Who owns Merlin Park and what are they allowed to do with it? At what stage is the planning application?
East Ayrshire Council owns this land and at this stage there is no planning application.
Initial discussions have taken place with Scottish Football Association and an expression of interest has been submitted to the Grassroots Funding scheme. We have also met with represntatives of Auchinleck Talbot Youth Football to discuss design requirements and concept designs. These will be developed in the coming months.
Closure was agreed before the decision went to the Governance and Scrutiny Committee - can we appeal?
East Ayrshire Council's Cabinet system means decisions are taken at Cabinet. They can then be subjected to scrutiny by the Governance and Scrutiny Committee. Significant reports such as East Ayrshire Performs are routinely presented to both committees because of their respective interests or where at least five members have sought to call in a Cabinet decision for scrutiny.
Decisions made at Cabinet are held in abeyance for eight days, because they can be called in any time up until 12 noon on the Thursday of the week following Cabinet. But where actions are more urgent (as in this case where certain payments to a third party were approved as a matter of urgency) Cabinet can agree that those urgent actions can be taken before the expiry of the call in period. This does not preclude the decision from being called in.
On this occasion Cabinet approved 17 decisions in total and only three (relating to the payments) were excluded from the need to wait for the call in period to expire. Had five members decided to call in any of these decisions they could have done so. It should be noted that all these decisions were supported by all three main parties sitting on Cabinet.
In short, the decision to allow early payment did not preclude the Council's normal scrutiny arrangements and non-Cabinet members did have the opportunity to call in any or all of the decisions had they chosen to do so.