The Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities and the Leisure Performance Manager presented a report setting out Fusion Lifestyle’s Annual Service Plan for 2015/16 and answered questions from the Committee as follows:

·         Visitor numbers overall had increased and this higher baseline should be taken into account when setting new targets for increased usage.

·         Visitor numbers to the new pool at Blackbird Leys had exceeded expectations and an unofficial audit had provided glowing feedback on the accessibility of this facility for disabled people.

·         Increased footfall creates upward pressure on energy usage, making the energy reduction target harder to achieve.

·         The initiatives to encourage participation, particularly from under-represented groups, and including free and low-cost activities were outlined.

·         It was realistic to achieve a zero subsidy per user by 2017, and Fusion’s contract committed them to delivering this.

Members of the Committee noted the work done on promoting and supporting sports directly and with schools, and suggested that promotion of cricket and summer sports may increase involvement from groups with low participation rates.

The Committee agreed that although significant progress had already been made, there was scope to be more ambitious in targeting increased participation amongst disabled users and people living in the most deprived wards in Oxford.

The Committee discussed how the Council could continue to encourage and enable greater participation amongst target groups.  Members noted the positive impact of the crèche at Blackbird Leys on enabling more women to use the leisure facilities.  The Committee agreed it would like to see further progress in providing similar family-friendly provision at more leisure facilities.

The Committee asked whether the target to reduce utility consumption by 2% each year against the 2013/14 baseline should be changed to a carbon reduction target, similar to the corporate target of reducing carbon emissions by 5% each year and suggested that a carbon reduction target could be measured on a per user basis, rather than on an overall basis. 

The Committee made a number of suggestions to officers:

·         National benchmarking data on the participation of target groups would be useful;

·         The risk register should include review dates where actions are identified;

·         Some targets may need to be re-expressed to provide greater clarity and consistency (one target was cumulative but others were non-cumulative);

·         An analysis of where users of the Blackbird Leys pool came from may be useful.

The Committee recommended to the City Executive Board:

1.    that a more ambitious performance target be adopted for increasing the participation of users resident in the most deprived wards in the city;

2.    that a more ambitious performance target is adopted for increasing the participation of disabled users;

3.    that the Council continues to work with Fusion Lifestyle to remove barriers to participation for our target groups, for example by seeking to extend crèche provision to more Council leisure facilities;

4.    that the utility consumption performance target is changed to a carbon reduction target, measured on a per user basis.  This could be in line with the Council’s overall target of reducing carbon emissions by 5% year on year.