Agenda item

The Managing Director of Rubicon Leisure Limited presented the Quarter 1 Performance Monitoring Report for 2024/25, which included an update on the year end performance for the 2023/24 financial year.

The Committee was informed that performance in the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year had been positive.  The Abbey Stadium and Pitcheroak Golf Course were performing well.  In particular, customers were attracted by the food and beverage offer at Pitcheroak, especially the carvery, which had developed a good reputation locally.  There had been a Beer Festival held at the venue, as part of efforts to make further use of the site.

The Arrow Valley Countryside Centre was performing well and attracting a lot of customers.  The Community Centres were also performing well.  Oakenshaw Community Centre in particular was benefiting from the number of Council and Committee meetings that were taking place at the site during the works on the Town Hall Hub.  Other Community Centres were benefitting from Members holding surgeries within their wards.

Many events had been successfully held at Forge Mill Needle Museum and the venue was attracting far more customers than had been the case in previous years.  It was suggested that this was partly due to investment in additional facilities, such as a play area, which were helping to attract more customers.

The Rubicon Leisure Limited branding and logo had been updated.  This was helping people to identify what services Rubicon Leisure Limited delivered and what the company was.  This would have a beneficial impact as the brand for Rubicon Leisure Limited continued to grow.

A customer satisfaction scoring system had been launched.  Any score above 0 was considered to be good, above 50 was considered to be excellent and above 70 was “top class”.  The final score represented the average feedback received from multiple customers.  A similar system was used by lots of companies, including multinational firms such as Netflix.  In this context, the Managing Director for Rubicon Leisure Limited was pleased to report that four of the facilities managed by the company had been rated “top class”.

The Managing Director of Rubicon Leisure Limited asked for it to be noted that the performance of the company’s services was a testament to the hard work of the staff.

Once the report had been presented, Members discussed the following points in detail:

·             The number of people who had attended the Beer Festival and how this compared to target customer numbers. 

·             The significant number of followers for Rubicon Leisure Limited on Instagram and how this had been achieved.  Members were informed that the Marketing team had been very active on social media.

·             The information provided in the report in respect of exploring opportunities for the community centres to be used in relation to health and wellbeing initiatives and what this would entail. 

·             An update was requested on the progress that had been achieved since the previous meeting of the Committee in respect of getting the water wheel at Forge Mill Needle Museum to be operational.  The Committee was informed that works were continuing and it was anticipated that volunteers would be able to operate the waterwheel in due course.

·             The valuable contribution that was made to the operation of both the Palace Theatre and Forge Mill Needle Museum by volunteers.  Members asked for their thanks to be communicated to the volunteers for their hard work and support.

·             The benefits arising from enabling Forge Mill Needle Museum to develop greater links with local schools.

·             The additional capital investment referenced in the report and how this would be funded.  The Section 151 Officer clarified that this referred to funding from the Council’s capital programme to invest in facilities at the Arrow Valley Countryside Centre.  The proposed funding was due to be considered at a forthcoming meeting of Council.

RESOLVED that

the update be noted.

(During consideration of this item, Members discussed matters that necessitated the disclosure of exempt information. It was therefore agreed to move to exclude the press and public prior to any debate on the grounds that information would be revealed which related to the financial and business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)).