Creswell parish council is due to consider the future running and survival of a new £3m leisure centre in the village. It comes after the costly development was hit by the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and huge increases in material costs resulting in an ‘enormous’ council tax hike for residents.
The Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre development, on Colliery Road, which was funded through organisations including Bolsover District Council and Elmton-with-Creswell Parish Council, faced long delays due to the pandemic, rising material costs and after its original developer fell into administration before it finally opened in April, 2023.
However, the facility – which is currently overseen by the parish council – has since been running at a loss during a difficult economic climate, and it has struggled with running and equipment costs, wages and bills.
The parish council established charity status for the facility and will soon consider handing over the reins to a charity commission board’s management committee to secure its future.
Elmton-with-Creswell Parish Council chairperson Cllr Duncan McGregor, who wants to see the centre succeed, said: “We received funding on the understanding that it would be run by the community and we received substantial sums of money on that basis.
“There has to be an agreement between the parish and the management committee on what can be approved, otherwise the whole place belongs to the parish council.”
He added: “It might not make money for the first couple of years but it won’t if people do not get on board and help and we need people to pull together as a team.”
Cllr McGregor described the parish council’s council tax precept for the 2024/25 financial year – which had to be nearly doubled to help pay for the centre’s losses and running costs – as ‘enormous’.
But he added that should the council now agree for the centre to be run by a charity-based management committee there will be benefits from better tax rates and future funding opportunities for the facility.
Cllr McGregor said solicitors are drawing up a legal framework between the parish council and the management committee which may be completed by August and the council then has to consider whether to allow the management committee to run the centre.
He added: “The reason we applied for charity commission was with the promise that this will be run by members of the community and that is what is being carried out.”
Four or five people have put their names forward to be trustees on the charity board management committee, according to Cllr McGregor, and they are in place should the parish council agree to hand over the management of the centre to the committee.
The original project was funded through Bolsover District Council, Elmton-with-Creswell Parish Council, Derbyshire County Council, Viridor, and the Big Local and Bolsover Partnership resulted in the launch of the well-supported Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre.
Parish and district Cllr McGregor, together with district and parish councillors, originally fought and secured funding for the facility after the project won overwhelming support from the public.
In the face of long delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and rocketing costs for materials, the parish council borrowed £2m of funding from the Public Loans Board to complete the scheme, and after the original contractor went into administration the district council’s development company Dragonfly completed the centre.
The parish council has stated the cost of the building has been taken care of, but staff need wages, and utility bills need paying and new equipment needs to be purchased so the parish council chose to subsidise the centre through its portion of the council tax.
Financial difficulties facing the centre were discussed at the parish council meeting in January at which the deficit generated for the 2023/24 financial year was estimated to be between £170,000 and £240,000.
The centre was discussed with the public at a council meeting in March where figures provided by Bolsover District Council showed a deficit of £153,109 to the end of March.
Cllr McGregor said: “There is potential growth for Creswell but unfortunately standing still in the current world is not an option. We have to look at ways of moving forward.”
He previously stated the local community made it clear that they wanted a new leisure facility and the parish council worked tirelessly to make Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre a reality.
The centre – which replaced Creswell’s Duke Street Leisure Centre which Bolsover District Council closed in December, 2016, due to its deterioration – offers a gym, a sports hall, a group exercise studio, classes, a soft play area, a caving experience and a cafe overlooking a patio.
Cllr McGregor added that there is potential for growth in Creswell not least with support from a newly-approved housing development near to the Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre.
Bolsover District Council is also considering a Draft Creswell Growth Plan which could include housing, employment opportunities and improvements to green spaces and the countryside in and around the village.
