COUNCILLORS have baulked at a move to pump more cash into West Devon’s pandemic-hit leisure centres as the effects of Covid-19 continues to bite.

West Devon Borough Council’s influential hub committee was told that more than £58,000 was needed to top up a shortfall in income from the management fee at Tavistock’s Meadowlands and Okehampton’s Parklands leisure centres.

But after being told by council vice-chairman Caroline Mott that she had heard complaints over the standards of cleanliness and a poor attitude from staff to customers, plus reservations from Cllr Mark Renders over how much money the authority was expected to give the centres, a recommendation to full council to hand over the cash from reserves was deferred pending talks with operators Fusion Leisure.

Those talks will centre on what improvements Fusion, who run both centres for the council, will be making to make the service better.

Officers had recommended the shortfall should be funded from the authority’s from the Covid Losses Earmarked Reserve for 2021-22. The council has already poured in hundreds of thousands of pounds into the two centres to soften the blow of the pandemic, which closed them completely during the first lockdown.

Committee members said they wanted the centres to succeed for the good of their residents. But Cllr Mott said: ‘My concern is that they were kind of bowling along before the pandemic and they don’t seem to have improved (standards). I know of gyms who did well through the pandemic, who bounced back and saw their membership rise. The private sector seems to be doing very well and my challenge to Fusion is to up their game and learn from what the private sector are doing and apply it in this instance.’

Cllr Renders’ concern was the council was relying on money coming in from the centres and ‘it wasn’t happening’. He added: ‘If we keep going, it is going to affect our resources.’

And Cllr Barry Ratcliffe was in favour of calling an independent consultant to check the centres’ ventilation and water quality, although he was told that these were checked as part of the contract with Fusion.

A report to the hub committee says that membership at both West Devon centres is below 70 per cent of what it was when the pandemic first struck in March 2020. Meadowlands is running at 67 per cent, while Parklands is 63 per cent.

It says the council signed a Design Build Maintain and Operate (DBOM) contract with Fusion for the two leisure centres in West Devon in 2016, which runs for 25 years.

Last September, the council agreed to continue with the Fusion contract as being the most appropriate means of supporting health and well-being objectives in West Devon.

Councillors have already agreed to support the leisure contract with significant funding for £435,000 to allow its centres to remain open through to March.

A further report in March outlined additional support being made to Fusion through the National Leisure Recovery Fund for £85,493. This enabled Fusion to meet the costs of preparing and carrying out the re-opening of leisure centres from April 12 onwards following the last lockdown.

The centres re-opened from April in line with Covid-19 restrictions and from July 19, more activities could take place with the easing of restrictions.

Officers say Swim School has been in high demand and overall memberships are at 78 per cent, compared to March. Casual public swims have been very popular, while fitness classes have seen increased usage. The gym usage has, however, been slower to recover.