The Head of Community Services submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which presented the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy 2015-2020 that had been updated to reflect responses from public consultation.

Cllr Rowley, Executive Board Member for Leisure, Parks and Sports presented the report and tabled the City Executive Board responses to the Scrutiny Committee recommendations (appended).

Cllr Simmons, Chair of Scrutiny Committee, said that the Scrutiny Committee had concluded that the overall leisure offer in the City was very good and he was pleased to note that the recommendations had been accepted in whole or in part.

The Head of Community Services undertook to provide the Board with an update on progress in developing and improving the leisure elements of the Council’s social media apps.

In discussion the Board noted that although the Council did not provide any specific leisure activities for disabled residents on the autistic spectrum, the “low impact” activities such as pilates and outdoor activities were regarded as being suitable.  These were complemented by activities provided by organisations like the Pegasus Theatre and the South Oxfordshire Adventure Playground.  The Head of Community Services said that this was a matter that could be kept under review.  The Board was pleased to note the important role of volunteers in providing the City’s leisure service.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Approve the Leisure & Wellbeing Strategy, 2015-2020.

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.