Interest high in leisure centres

Four organisations have been invited to tender for sports and leisure facilities in Powys as part of plans to change the way services are managed.
 
The county council has been investigating different delivery options for the county’s centres to help meet the challenges of a difficult economic climate.

Cabinet Member for Leisure, Councillor Graham Brown said; “We are delighted at the response we have received to the council’s work to seek a partner to manage the council’s sports and leisure facilities.

“It is a crucial project designed to safeguard future service deliver and the positive response so far is good news. 

“The first stage of the process involved inviting potential partners to register their interest and provide business, financial and operational information.  Initial interest was received from fifteen organisations with five submitting a completed pre-qualifying questionnaire for evaluation.

“Following careful evaluation four organisations will proceed to the ‘Invitation to Tender’ stage and they will be asked to complete a thorough and detailed tender document with supporting information.”

The four will have until the middle of January to prepare an outline tender which will be discussed with them at the end of January. Final tender bids will then be received by the middle of March and the successful bidder named at the end of April following detailed evaluation of bids.

It is likely that site visits will be requested by the leisure operators as part of the process which the project team will arrange. All centres will be notified of the visits and will be asked to participate.

It is anticipated that leisure services transferred to a new operator by the summer.