A pig’s ear –

but where’s

the silk purse ?

A year ago it all it looked so rosy and bright – with this proclamation by Boston Borough Council: “It’s all systems go for a bright new future for leisure services in Boston. National leisure services operator Leisure Connection has won a prestigious contract from Boston Borough Council to run the town’s Geoff Moulder Leisure Complex and the Princess Royal Sports Arena.”
We raised an eyebrow at the time.
We raised an eyebrow again last week, when rumours circulated suggesting that aspects of the leisure services plan were not going well, and that Leisure Connection was getting cold feet about parts of the deal.
In an effort to snatch some sort of victory from the jaws of defeat, Boston Borough Council has announced that “it will be business as usual at Boston’s Geoff Moulder Leisure Complex.”
Business as usual, that is, with one major exception – “Leisure Connections … will not now be taking over the centre.”
The planned £2 million refurbishment has been slashed to a paltry £284,000 - and some of that will go towards car park improvements and “energy saving measures.”
And, in a deal with the Princess Royal Sports Arena that is sure to delight everyone, the council has agreed to subsidise the hapless Boston Sports Initiative to the tune £176,000 in the 2011/12 financial year, £88,000 in 2012/13 and nil subsidy in 2013/14.
Whilst it was in deal signing mode, the council also entered into a 99-year lease with Boston College, which will see the Peter Paine centre and grounds transfer to the college, which will take over responsibility for maintenance, repair and operational costs.
The Peter Paine Sports Centre is, according the borough council, a “public facility that is operated as a registered charity for the benefit of the Boston residents” – a situation that will now be no more.
The lease specifies that the college will have use of the Peter Paine centre and grounds on weekdays, with public use available at “locally-comparable rates” during the evenings and at weekends
The Peter Paine facilities include squash, badminton, basketball, tennis, table tennis, cricket nets, five-a-side football, netball, indoor hockey, indoor athletics, gymnastics and roller skating.
In many cases, the loss of these facilities in the week will not be compensated by a visit to the PRSA – membership of which is beyond the pocket of many local people.
Boston College applied to the Skills Funding Agency for the maximum grant available - £1 million - which according to reports last year was to expand and improve its sporting curriculum.
As well as the refurbishment works at Peter Paine, the college plans to build a new teaching block on the Rochford site.
But there’s more …
The college will obtain the Peter Paine site at a peppercorn rent and decided that once “these works are implemented the college should close the De Montfort campus and dispose of it as soon as possible.”**
So it seems that the benefits to the college are manifest.
It gets the site at a knock down rent, government cash to do it up, and then the bonus of flogging off an unwanted campus for what will doubtless be a handsome sum for a generous plot of land in a key development area of the town.
Why do we feel that the taxpayers are getting the rough end of the stick in all of this?
One question that also remains unanswered in the borough’s statement about new look leisure services is whether or not Leisure Connection is taking over at the PRSA.
The borough doesn’t say either way.
But if Leisure Connection is running the PRSA, then why is the borough continuing to subsidise the present management of the Boston Sports Initiative for the next two years?

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FOOTNOTE: Whilst we are often critical of the role of our local newspapers in Boston, we have to salute the reporters from the Boston Standard and Boston Target at last week’s full council meeting where all of this was scheduled for discussion in secret.
They demanded to stay for the leisure paper as it was in the public interest – an argument that lasted for ten minutes - with David Seymour of LSG standing up and arguing with the Mayor to accompanying jeers from the public. Eventually the Target’s Graham Holmes joined in – leading to a cave-in of sorts when the Chief Executive Richard (“I am delighted to write an introduction to the new Boston Bulletin which I hope will help the workings of the council become ever more transparent and open,” agreed to hold a press conference last Friday at which this pig’s ear was finally unveiled.

** Boston College - minutes of meeting of the Corporation July 20th  2010