To adopt the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy following public consultation

The Head of Leisure, Parks & Communities submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the draft Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy for public consultation.

Cllr Mike Rowley, Board member for Leisure Contract and Community Partnership Grants presented the report. He explained it wasn’t easy to continue to improve the leisure services in the current economic climate. However the aim was to make the service financially viable which was likely by 2017.

Nearly a fifth of Oxford residents are clinically overweight and the strategy focuses on tackling these health inequalities.

Cllr Lygo thanked Ian Brooke and the leisure officers and volunteers for their hard work.

The Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities outlined the improvements in the City’s leisure facilities since the last strategy in 2009. These include spending £30M in improving leisure facilities and increasing participation from 20 to 29 % since 2009.

Cllr Price asked about the makeup of the members on the City’s Leisure Partnership Board and whether it included representatives from minority groups. The Executive Director of Community Services said that the Leisure Partnership Board had been rejuvenated 3 times to make it more interactive and encourage a mix of people onto it; it included a young person representative but did not yet have anyone from the BME community.

Cllr Price said the Council needed to get more BME people involved and embed this need in the strategy.

The Leisure Strategy will be consulted on for 8 weeks and will return to the Board for adoption in July 2015.

The City Executive Board resolved to approve the draft Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy for public consultation.