THE COMPANY running Bracknell Leisure Centre and Coral Reef will not have to pay the council management fees for an entire year as part of a plan to help the operators recover from the coronavirus crisis.

Both sites along with Downshire Golf Complex were forced to close after lockdown was introduced at the height of the pandemic.

READ MORE: Everyone Active to get support from Bracknell Forest Council

In April, the News reported a support package was being prepared for operators Everyone Active but little was known about what this aid might look like.

Bracknell News:

Now more details of the help Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) is set to hand out have been revealed after the authority’s top team agreed:

  • To grant Everyone Active a management fee ‘holiday’ for the entirety of the 2020/2021 financial year
  • To write-off the estimated re-opening costs and losses Everyone Active incurs from July 2020 to March 2021
  • Going forward, the council can claw back some of the costs it has incurred through a new ‘surplus share mechanism’ agreed with Everyone Active — although how much it claws back depends on the leisure centre’s trading performances over the course of the leisure contract.

The News asked BFC how much these arrangements are expected to cost taxpayers, but a spokesperson said this information was “confidential.”

READ MORE: Update on leisure centres re-opening

Bracknell Leisure Centre re-opened on Saturday, July 25, following the re-opening of Downshire Golf Complex in May, which is also managed by Everyone Active.

It is not clear when Coral Reef Waterworld will re-open.

Speaking after the Leisure Centre re-opened last weekend, councillor John Harrison said: “The availability of sports and leisure facilities is crucial to the borough’s recovery from the pandemic, particularly in relation to mental health and wellbeing, as well as physical health.

Bracknell News:

“As a well known and loved community leisure facility in the borough, the council‘s Executive agreed that it was important to support Everyone Active with Bracknell Leisure Centre’s re-opening, in line with government guidance.”

BFC still owns the three sites but the running of the leisure complexes was handed over to Active in March 2018.

READ MORE: Everyone Active takes control of leisure centres

A ten-year contract was agreed between the parties at the time.

Since then, the operators have ploughed more than £2 million into refurbishing Bracknell Leisure Centre.