Latest cuts in cultural budgets get Council green light

Link4Life proposals submitted to the Council Cabinet as part of Phase 3 of its cross cutting review have been approved.

Further savings in this round of £83,000 will be delivered by Link4Life – the Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust – in the six months from September to the end of the financial year.

Vacant posts that have arisen over the last two months in the Link4Life’s sport and leisure services will remain unfilled while a restructure in arts and heritage will see a reduction in management and staff costs. This is likely to result in an overall loss of two full-time and three part-time jobs achieved through either natural wastage or redundancy.

“We have once again achieved the required savings to meet the Council’s targets”, said Board of Trustees’ Chair, Brian Ashworth.

“The Phase 3 proposals did not include any further changes to opening hours at Touchstones Rochdale and I can confirm that there will be no changes either at Link4Life leisure centres and pools.

“Our aim as always is to minimise reductions in front line services. We have also been able to protect the arts and heritage education service to schools and avoid further reductions in the museum section’s staffing.

“We have been helped in this by a number of staff vacancies that have arisen over the last eight weeks in sport and leisure services and although these posts will not be deleted they will not currently be filled.

“However, overall these savings significantly reduce the management and service delivery resources available to us across the trust as a whole. We have raised our concerns with the Council that this and future cross cutting reviews may affect our ability to deliver the wider efficiency measures of the Council’s capital programme.”

The £34 million capital programme of investment in new sport, arts and leisure facilities concludes in 2012 with the completion of the new Rochdale leisure centre, currently under construction. A major player in the regeneration plans for Rochdale town centre, this will be the third £10 million plus new centre to open in the Borough in the four years since Link4Life was formed. Set up in 2007 by the Council, leisure services transferred into the trust under a 15 year management contract whilst retaining all assets under Council control.

Link4Life’s Deputy Managing Director, Peter Kilkenny said, “The setting up of the Link4Life cultural trust has brought improvements boroughwide.

“Leisure services have been turned round from an annual overspend to a situation where year on year the cost to taxpayers for these services is falling and growth in new facilities is better than anything this borough has seen for over 20 years.

“The spin off benefits have been new local jobs, hundreds of young people receiving volunteer training, around £1 million a year of additional grant funding for local projects and vast increases in participation rates.

“I am pleased to say that despite the scale of efficiencies that the Council is forced to find, here in Rochdale and the borough we have avoided the full scale closure of leisure facilities that is being proposed by other authorities across the country.”

Flagging up the potential risks from future budget cuts, Peter Kilkenny said: “We have contributed nearly half a million pounds this year from the cross cutting review and further savings next year are anticipated.

“On top of this the Council will save more than £500,000 this year and £750,000 next year from capital programme efficiencies. This is achieved through a direct reduction in the annual contract fee that we receive and the absorption of increased operational costs in the new sports facilities arising from larger centres and longer opening hours.

“The planned savings that Link4Life will deliver is due to rise to £19 million over the life of the contract.

“We are determined to continue to support the Council in achieving the necessary cost cutting measures but if we are to continue to meet these and the promised capital efficiencies we must ensure that the trust retains both existing levels of service and adequate management capacity.”

 Link4Life has been accused by objectors to the previous rounds of the Council’s cross cutting reviews of making disproportionate reductions in its arts and heritage budgets compared with the larger sport and leisure services.

Peter Kilkenny said: “We have gone to great lengths to offer reassurances on this. In total this year we will give back savings to the Council of over £1 million. Just over 30% of these savings will come from arts and heritage with around 70% coming from both sports and management support services.

“The cuts made are unavoidable and necessary. They come after a period of sustained growth and investment in all services including arts and heritage services and a recent independent quality inspection has described Touchstones as a “model of what can be achieved”.

“We remain determined to strengthen our portfolio of services and expand where possible.”