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Date posted 25 Jan 2019
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GLL announced in December that The Sports Hall Building at Gosling Sports Park will be closing from 31st March 2019.

In addition to providing plenty of notice of the company’s intentions, the centre hosted Customer Meetings to communicate the changes and arrangements for alternative local sports provision. These took place on 7th January at 6pm, 9th January at 1pm and 10th January at 11am.

These Customer Meetings were attended by approximately 300 People, who raised concerns and asked questions, which have been captured below.

Who owns Gosling Sports Park?

Gosling Sports Park is wholly owned by GLL, in a long term lease with Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. In 2016 GLL cleared the debt from Gosling Sports Trust in exchange for this lease.

Who is making the decision to close the Sports Hall Building?

The decision has come from GLL following a Business Review, as part of the 2019 Business Planning Process, of all area within Gosling Sports Park.

But why close?

The decision to close part of the park (and in particular the sports hall) was not taken lightly. It became apparent through our review that it was an inevitable outcome in our aim to reduce the financial challenges in this difficult climate, and ensure long term sustainability.

So you thought you could operate Gosling Sports Park at a profit, what’s changed?

GLL has been able to sustain losses in the short term but cannot do so going forward and thus the service needs to change to make it viable.

Are GLL in financial difficulties?

GLL are not in financial difficulties, but we work on a very low margin, normally targeting 2 to 3% to ensure we maintain adequate reserves.

What is the financial deficit?

We cannot share the financial details of the park for commercial reasons but we can say that at this time, it is operating at a considerable loss of hundreds of thousands per year and draining our charitable funds.

You are only interested in making a profit.

GLL is a not for profit organisation, all funds generated are reinvested into the business. This can be seen with the amount of reinvestment that has taken place at Gosling Sports Park over the past 2.5 years.

What obligations do you have to Welwyn Hatfield Council?

The lease between GLL and Welwyn Hatfield Council has various clauses, one of which detailing the Park has to be used for Sport.

What obligations do you have to the Charity Commission?

The Charity Commission is not GLL’s regulator, and are actually regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We do of course need to abide by charity law and we do adopt charity guidance in our approach and governance.

What obligations do you have with Gosling Sports Trust?

The lease between GLL and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council stipulates that the Gosling site must be used for sport, but does not place any obligation on us to keep specific buildings in use.

Is this part of a longer term plan?

In the immediate future it is a case of closing the building to ensure the Sports Park is sustainable and prevents further losses.

What will happen when the building is closed?

The Building will be locked, with alarms in place to prevent any anti social behaviour. We will also hold a responsibility to ensure that the building is safe and that complete regular checks within the building.

Was this GLL’s plan from the beginning?

No. GLL’s objectives remain very much a want to provide services that improves community cohesion, health and wellbeing. We do however need to be financially robust to be able to deliver our objectives.

Displacement Options: Roll out Badminton Courts to use on the Tennis Courts?

We have a very successful Tennis Programme that has a very high demand of courts at peak times, which are at capacity at these time periods. This follows on from the Trampoline Park development on 3 Courts in 2017.

Does Surplus from Gosling stay with Gosling or go back to GLL?

It all goes back to GLL to support all the Centres within GLL to aid ongoing improvements. There is however currently no surplus coming from Gosling Sports Park.

You have said it will cost £3million to upgrade the Sports Hall, where does it need to be spent?

All areas of the Sports Hall Building are very much in need of investment, along with items that can not be seen by the public such as the plant rooms which contain boilers, air handling units. In reality this would be a fix in the medium term, and would not cover the cost of any issues that may arise with a building of this age.

Can you extend the closing date?

Not at this stage no, our Business Plan for 2019 assumes the Building will close at the end of March ’19.

There are over 250 Bridge Club members, where are you planning for these to go?

The Bridge Club are relocating to the Main Building and will be making use of two adjacent rooms next to the Trampoline Park.

Can it stay open till 2020 for the WGC Centenary?

This is not an option due to the amount in which the facility costs to operate. We do however have plans in which we can still host the Centenary Event in 2020. We are able to house Badminton within the Tennis Courts, in which roll out courts can be used, and Squash can take place at Panshanger Golf Complex.

How will the Local School children be affected?

There are 22 schools in the local area, with 6 schools using the facility on a regular basis, with different parts of the Centre being used such as the Athletics Track, Tennis Courts and Gym. We are able to look at displacement options, for schools that wish to play badminton, to Hatfield Leisure Centre.

Is Gymnastics closing?

No, this is being relocated to within the Trampoline Park, and use of the tumble track can now also be included.

Are there Health & Safety concerns within the Building?

No, there are not. If we had any concerns of this nature the building would not still be open today. That being said, a building of this age does present various challenges that are ongoing and does become costly to maintain and operate.

Could a group operate the building for you?

This could be an option and will be something that would need to be reviewed. Naturally GLL would not be looking at allowing for a competitor to come in and manage the facility; however it could be possible for a local community group to operate.

On Saturdays it is very rare that any money is taken over the till?

Unfortunately this is the case and we can ensure that this is improved going forward. Looking at historical data however it is clear that although income is not being taken this will not drastically change the overall financial challenges.

Did you listen to the advice of the Gosling Sports Trust about what to invest the money in?

Yes, and GLL and Gosling Sports Trust meet regularly and have an open dialogue about what is happening at the Sports Park.

Various funding has been put into the Sports Hall from Sport England, what do they think of this?

We have opened dialogue with Sport England to inform them of our intentions, and fully understand that there is a claw back clause on some of the previous agreements.

There are a lot of youths coming into the building and causing a disturbance.

Unfortunately there has been a lot of anti social behaviour across the whole Sports Park in recent weeks. The management team are working with the local PCSO’s to work on prevention strategies to put a stop to this.

What is happening to the Athletics and Cycle Track?

Both the athletics and cycle track are remaining insitu and meetings are being held with the relevant clubs in how we make these areas more sustainable going forward.