You Said We Did – Active Tameside Consultation

We Asked Active Tameside is a charitable trust that manages leisure services of behalf of Tameside Council. Like many local authorities, Tameside Council is having to make cost effective decisions in light of the challenging economic climate brought on in part by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Active Tameside was required to make efficiency savings alongside other Council services so that the Council can produce a balanced budget for 2021/22 and future years. A Sport and Leisure Review has been undertaken across leisure estate which proposes initial cost-saving measures aimed at achieving financial sustainability. Some cost-saving measures were developed in partnership with Active Tameside: to withdraw services from Adventure Longdendale, Active Oxford Park and the Etherow Centre.

This consultation aimed to find out views on Active Tameside facilities and sought views on how these proposals might affect local people and how we could continue to deliver health and wellbeing services to the local population.

The consultation ran for 6 weeks via an online survey, a series of meetings between directors and members of the Etherow Centre and Charitable Trust, with individuals as well as community organisations.
Throughout the consultation the following themes were recurring:

Respondents highly valued Active facilities
Active plays a huge role in improving or maintaining physical and mental wellbeing, in community safety and developing a sense of community pride
The importance of having places to meet and interact with other people
Many respondents were not direct users of Active Oxford Park, Etherow or Adventure Longdendale and so reported no direct impact to themselves, however many acknowledged the possible impact of the proposals on others
A small percentage who responded (2%) were in favour of withdrawing services. A third also gave suggestions for savings elsewhere, such as:
- Review/increase prices/fees
- Broaden the offer/appeal of the centres
- Hire out facilities to clubs for income
- Link in with other organisations to deliver facilities

We Did The findings of the consultation were compiled into a report that was presented to decision-makers. Given the response throughout the consultation, progress was made to repurpose the three assets in the short-term as follows:

Adventure Longdendale – the centre was closed for use by the general public but being used to provide day care services for adults with special educational needs. A short term business proposal was also developed for use of the centre investigating feasibility of utilising the centre for commissioned services during the week, but maximising potential for income at the weekends by opening the attraction on Friday evening and over the weekend.
Active Oxford Park – this site has been fully utilised as a COVID vaccination centre while proposals for longer term use were developed. Active has continued to maximise income by using the site for commissioned services and some community hire.
Etherow Centre – opportunities for a volunteer-led solution are being explored

The longer term future of the sites will be incorporated into the authority’s ‘WorkSmart’ transformation strategy, which looks at our property portfolio and is designed to ensure rational and cost-effective use of assets.

Consultation ran for:

12 Weeks

from:

12/02/21

to:

26/03/21

Documents