Transcript SE Presentation to Stephen Timms

Mark Sesnan
GLL, April 2008
The Sustainable Management
of Public Swimming Pools
• About GLL
– A bit of background
• Swimming Pool Sustainability
– A cant and a rant around the issues
• The GLL Sport Foundation
– GLL helping disadvantaged young people
succeed in their sport
About GLL
• The ‘original’ leisure trust established in 1993
• Industrial and Provident Society (IPS)
• Society for the Benefit of the Community
• Social Enterprise
• Co-operative Structure
• Not Profit Distributing
• Exempt Charity
Extensive Experience
• Operate 65 leisure and sports facilities
• Operate nearly 50 pool complexes including
three 50m pools
• London and surrounding boroughs
• 14 London Borough Partners
• 5 other Public Sector / Charity Partners
• £70m Turnover
• 4,000 staff
Map of London and GLL’s Partnerships
Swimming Pool Sustainability
Sustainability Issues
•
•
•
•
•
Design
Technology
Energy
Environment
Tendering
• Increasing
Operating Costs
• Health & Safety
• Programming
• Staffing
• Temperatures
• Chemicals
• Charges
Defining a Sustainable Pool
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Financial Model
Environmental Impact
Robust ‘lifetime’ design and build
Attractive and Pleasant
Right Location
Intensity of Use, Balance &‘Ownership’
Safe
Design
• Designed to Use or to Look at?
• Designed by Operators or Architects?
• Lifetime costs exceed build costs, but
get less priority
• We have been designing public pools
for over 100 years and we still make
basic errors
Design (Continued)
Good Design
Poor Practice
• Experienced design
Team including
Operator
• Operator not involved
or has ‘back seat’
• Architect is Team
Member not Master
• Designed from outside
in (..what does it look
like)
• Lifetime cost is more
important than build
cost
• Capital build cost is
more important than
lifetime cost
Designing for Flexible Use
• Easily Moveable Floors, Booms and
Bulkheads
• Leisure Water v’s Fitness Water
• Depth profile
• Temperature variability
• Changing configuration
• Accessibility
Environmentally sustainable
• Intelligent design
•
• Heat Reclaim
• Solar / Ground Heat
• Pool Covers
• Variable Speed Pumps
• Managed pool and air temperatures
• Brown Water reuse
Tendering and Procurement
• CCT abolished by Government, but
Procurement Officers happy to use EU
tendering rules with vigour …. Why?
• Tendering always ends up focussing on
PRICE (..oh and a bit of quality, allegedly)
• Cut the price in a climate of increasing
fixed costs and you end up with….
Cut the costs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Low paid staff
Low motivation
Poor service
No cash for repairs and improvement
Fewer customers
Cycle of decline
Ultimately less pools
–
–
–
–
Less swimmers
More drownings
More sedentary people
More obesity & health related illness
But…
• We saved a few quid on the tender
(which the Borough Treasurer then gave to
another department that was too
‘professional’ to have to save money)
• Cynical but true!
• Why do we do it?
Financial Model
The perceived wisdom:
• Pools cost money
• Health, Fitness & Dry Sport generates
money
• Combined they should break even
Of course it is more complex!
• Estimated that the true cost of a swim is
£4 - £7, although the average paid by
adults is £2 - £3 and even less by children
• The cost per swim increases if the building
is old or new and badly designed
• What is the role of any subsidy?
Offsetting the Cost
• Maximising the pool programme
– Rationalised opening hours
– Back to back sessions
• Optimising the pricing
– Can pay should pay (with ‘Robin Hood’)
– Direct debits?
• Collocating ‘dry’ facilities
– Add Revenue positive cost centres such as Health
and fitness Gyms, Spa etc
A Balanced Programme
• Coherent Public timetable
at regular and popular times:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Commuter, Lunchtime, Evenings, Weekends
Fitness (Lane) Swimming, Fun and Leisure
Women Only, Families Only
Schools, Clubs, Lessons
Beacon Club, Swim 21 etc
Water Fitness (aqua-aerobics)
All Things to All People?
• The Fitness Swimmer
• Clear lanes, speed segregated, no kids
• The Swimming Club
• Exclusive Use
• Children and Families
• Fun, splash, swim
• Special Groups
• No viewing, No male staff, specialist equipment
What the Customer Wants
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Easy to park car, bike or bus
Accessible timetable
Friendly, efficient reception
Fair price
Clean, bright and safe changing areas
Working, good sized lockers
Clean water, low/no chlorine
Intelligent lifeguarding
Space to swim
Do we always live up to this?
• Many pools are Dickensian in look,
feel and operation
• Pool programmes are often dominated
by self interested groups
• Do the Customers have to ‘wipe their
feet on the way out!’
Challenging Ourselves
• Drive up standards for pool design
• Drive greater understanding of
swimming needs and customers
• Drive pool usage and utilisation to
financially appropriate levels
• Drive the ‘case’ for swimming as the
flexible physical activity and sport
The Latest Round of ‘Issues’
• Health and Safety culture generally
– we must find someone to blame
– all accidents must have someone at fault
– the ‘crime’ can be just not having an adequate
risk assessment!
• The need for ever increasing staff levels
• The litigious Customers
• The Pools ‘safety’ culture is killing off
enjoying yourself and diving – what next?
H&S -How did we end up here?
• Nobody would drown in our pools if we
closed them all!
[Of course a lot more people would drown in
canals and open water]
• Nobody goes to work to cause a tragedy
[But you can go to prison if one happens on your
watch]
(..unless you are an H&S officer of course)
Ensuring the future for Swimming
• Recognising the role of swimming in an
Active Society
• Forging ‘added value’ partnerships between
the ASA, Clubs and the wider community
• Sharing best practice
• Promoting access
• ..and Income needs to cover costs!
GLL Sport Foundation