Following an extensive procurement process, social enterprise Places Leisure have been awarded the contract to manage the Xcel Leisure Complex, Sports Hub and Hurst Pool for the next 10 years.

The health and wellbeing of our residents is vitally important to us and the activities and facilities offered by our leisure facilities at the Xcel Leisure Centre, Hurst Pool, Sports Hub and synthetic turf football pitches all play a key role in achieving this. Having a like-minded partner to manage and develop these facilities for the benefit of the whole community is critical for their future success. We have been working successfully in partnership with Places Leisure for the last 31 years.

Our leisure facilities have attracted 1 million visits per year from residents who have taken part in the wide range of activities across our sites; including the exercise referral scheme, the Saturday night youth project, cardio and cancer rehabilitation classes, walking football and netball and falls prevention sessions, as well the more traditional gym, swim and fitness programmes.

We are planning to build on this success by further enhancing the facilities and expanding the existing health and wellbeing offer to reach all parts of our community. In the next few years, Places Leisure will invest £6m at the Xcel leisure complex to create a new health suite, immersive cycling studio, an extension to the existing exercise studios/fitness suite and a new soft play area; all contributing towards achieving a thriving Elmbridge. We will also continue our strong concessionary policy which ensures the facilities, health programmes and classes are accessible to all our residents, including those in receipt of benefits or who do not normally have access to sports and health facilities.

A thriving and sustainable Elmbridge

Having a thriving and sustainable Elmbridge takes commitment not just from us, as a council, but from our partners too. As part of the procurement of this new leisure facilities contract, we specified the energy reduction expectations from our leisure partner. Elmbridge’s leisure facilities account for a significant amount of the council’s energy usage. To offer more energy efficient facilities, both Places Leisure  and the council will invest in more energy efficient infrastructure. This will include new heating systems, hydrogen ready boilers, photovoltaics panels, LED lighting and electric car charging bays, collectively providing more sustainable leisure facilities.

Councillor Janet Turner Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Environment, said, “We were committed to awarding this contract to an operator who has a successful record of partnership working, a passion for improving the health and wellbeing of residents, as well as plans to improve and extend the facilities while working towards a more energy efficient infrastructure. We believe this contract will bring many benefits to residents and we look forward to working closely with Places Leisure over the next 10 years to create high quality, affordable and sustainable facilities for residents to enjoy”.

Dan Walker, Business Development Director for Places Leisure added, “We are delighted to be able to further our partnership and explore exciting avenues for the future of Elmbridge’s leisure offering as part of our social commitment to creating active places and healthy people. It has been our privilege to support the local community of Elmbridge over the last 31 years and our local knowledge coupled with our experience operating 100 leisure facilities across the UK, will mean we can bring an even greater community focus and a range of innovative new facilities that the people of Elmbridge can enjoy in a  sustainable way.

“I’m also delighted to announce that we’ve adopted the Real Living Wage from 1 October which will help our terrific people in Elmbridge. Our moral responsibility as an employer is to look after our people at all times, but doubly so in the face of an acute cost of living crisis. I sincerely hope that it helps our colleagues now and into the future.”