STRATTON St Margaret Parish Council used money from its reserves to pay for expensive leisure centre maintenance in order to keep the amount of the parish’s precept given to the centre consistent.

At a recent council meeting, chair of the financial committee Coun Stuart Leach mentioned that the amount of money given to the leisure centre from the council’s precept had remained steady at around £200,000 a year then also mentioned that around £450,000 had been spent on the leisure centre last year.

Coun Ann Brooker questioned how there could be such a big difference between the two figures and finance officer Matthew Blatchford suggested that it could have been due to an error being made when the figures were keyed in manually, though this was not the case.

The £450k figure was actually an operational deficit for Grange Leisure following a year of high costs due to building repairs and maintenance. The boilers and the plumbing had to be repaired and emergency electrical repairs needed to be made following a fire risk assessment.

The £445,456 cost of this was met through the parish council’s reserve account, so it did not accrue any debt. This clarification was not mentioned at the meeting, though it does explain Coun Stuart Leach’s comment that the amount of the annual precept given to the leisure centre was around £200,000 a year, despite last year’s significant extra repair costs.

The council had previously agreed to undertake a feasibility study to identify if they would be best to work in partnership with a social enterprise company who will be able to invest the necessary time, money and skill that is required to keep the leisure centre an up to date and viable asset.

Three companies are working on feasibility statements which will be sent to the steering committee and marked before councillors decide which company, if any, to partner with.

This year’s Stratton St Margaret parish precept will increase by three per cent to stay in line with inflation - this is much lower than last year’s 13 per cent precept increase.