Calne Leisure Centre

Clunk

Why do they charge £300 per year when the people of Calne are paying towards it with council tax?

If they are taking Tax money, then it should be free to use in my opinion.

Or, if they are charging £300 per year for people to use it, then why are people paying towards it in their council tax?

As I see it, a good 85% to 90% of Calne are paying for a service they don't need, want or use. And if they do decide to use it, they have to pay twice. Is this fair?

Local lass

the cost of the private gyms are nearly twice the price than calne.

they could not survive on what the council tax is ,look into the cost of running that place,plus staff,then you have the hidden extras,maintanance ,insurance .

with out that place being open calnes school kids could not go swimming.

as i understand it clunk you have kids in calne school.do they go swimming now its open?

did you know clunk that each house hold in chippenham pays around 20 pound a year for stanley park.now unless you havekids or are into football you are less likly to use that than the leisure center.

as a person in calne i dont begrudge paying tax for it what i do begrudge is how it was done.
as when it started it was all private then we heard how the council came in to give some money to help the centre out .then we get told oh by the way your paying it through tax.

they did the same with the heritage centre.

Clunk

Didn't the council close it because it was too expensive to keep open on the use it had?
What has changed apart from you now pay stupid amounts to use it?

Peter Dolman · Calne Leisure Centre

Clunk to allow free access for all the Calne Town precept would have to be raised by approx £95 for every house hold. What would you do about people from outside Calne would they have free access as their council tax does not come to Calne. What about people who live outside North Wilts.

The leisure centre closed in March 2007 due to the failure of North Wilts Leisure Ltd. That business had considerable overheads including a board of directors who were paid considerable salaries.

Calne Town council voted to give a grant totalling £50,000 over 2 years. This accounts to approx £5.50 per house per year.
Households in Calne subsidises allotment holders to the tune of approx £2.50 per year.
The number of allotment holders are approx 100 against approx 1,300 regularly using the leisure centre.
I believe the Leisure Centre offer value for money and provides a 1st class facility for the resident of Calne and its hinterland.

As the finance director of the leisure centre I can confirm that the cost of electricity and heating oil is approx £100,000 per year and the total annual cost is estimated at £500,000. The £25,000 although only 5% of the estimated total is most welcome.

The current board of directors are not paid the shareholders will not receive and dividends or interest on their share.
We are a community company and we have never been a private business. We are owned by the shareholders!

pimpdriver

Well said Peter Dolman.

Clunk, get your facts right!

Clunk

I am sorry, but I just don't see the point in paying for something I am never going to use.

I live in Chippenham now, and we have to pay for the Olympiad thing. And I recently found out everyone in Calne is as well. So why are they paying for 2 sports centre's?

If the council had not sold the old allotment's for new houses, then we would be paying a damn sight less then £2.50 for them.

I assume if the company that owned the leisure centre went bust then I would assume it was because it was not making any money. They owned lots of leisure centre's so that's lots of leisure centre's not making money. If they were not making money then, how can they be making money now?

You can't really blame it on pay packet's as they were being paid by more then one centre.

rosco

Chepfer

I agree rosco, this principle can be applied at a higher level too.

I pay a large part of my taxes to the NHS to provide care and assistance if ever it's needed. Though fact is i have not visisted a doctors or hospital for years ... but i dont resent others using "MY" money to get themselves better, if it is for the greater good of the population.

What i do resent however " and i'm going to rile some of you" is people who smoke and then go to hospital with cancer or whatever nasty diesease they have inflicted upon themselves, through there "own neglect" and then expect "me" to pay for them to get help.

Perhaps this is for another discussion moderator ?

Local lass

Clunk with all due respect your kids come to school in calne so they must at some point now or in the near future use the sports centre?

Clunk
Sergeant Major

Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 865
Location: Horizontal
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:57 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My kids mum, lives in breamor road. My kids go to Dunstan. How does that work?
Also my cousin lives in Dixon way. His kids go to Priestly.
How on earth do they decide who goes where? I have even seen kids walk past Dunstan to go to StEdmonds. Surely they should go to the closest school.
We need some politicians on this forum.
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Clunk

They never have.

Local lass

GTB

Peter Dolman · leisure centre

For the benefit of any one who does not quite understand the financial basis of Calne Leisure Centre Ltd, here is some more information.
Calne town council agreed to give the Calne Leisure Centre Ltd the some of £50,000 over 2 years (£25,000 per year). This amount is being raised in the financial year 2008/09 at an approx cost of £5.50 per house.
This is a one off unless the councillors vote to give us more in the future, which of course would be welcomed.

The District council gave us £60,000, which is the amount that they would have spent decommissioning the pool if we had not reopened it. In addition the districts area 5 committee which has money to give to community gave us a grant of £75,000.
We have also been awarded a further £100,000 in the 2008/09 financial year.
The last amount is warrented because all Calne residents are paying taxes to support the Chippenham, Malmesbury, Corsham & Wootton Bassett leisure centres.
Calne Leisure Centre is a non profit making organisation. If the leisure centre is not a community asset and worth supporting what is!

pimpdriver

I went swimming this morning, £5 for me and my 4 year old girl. We were there at 9am, and there was 1 other person in the pool until 0925!!!!

Your own private pool for £5!!!

Bargain.

Local lass

it is good.
i dont think no one is disputing that the liesure centre being open is bad.
#
if the councill wouldnt have given them the money we wouldnt have to pay taxes but it will be a lot dearer going in

Geddi

Peter, as financial man of the Sport Centre, are you aware that NWDC are offering a shed load of cash to orgs such as that one which could be used to pay for a green/energy audit/survey?

£100,000 pa sounds an awful lot to me, even for a building as large as Calne Sports Centre! I am certain that with a modest investment on insulation and the like the capital costs could be recooped within a few years. If you'd like me to find out more and do some research into this, do email me, my address should be shown somewhere within.

Peter Dolman

Geddi, can't find your email but mine is dolmanpeter@yahoo.co.uk .
We are aware of the monies available from district and are actively looking to maximise Calne's share of it.

Top Dog

Peter under Geddis name there is a E-mail link. Very Happy