Don't shoot the messenger when publicity can bring support - John McLellan

If in doubt, blame the media. Shooting the messenger is a spineless retreat for public organisations whenever what’s going on is revealed, and Edinburgh Leisure has fallen into that category.

Kirkliston Leisure Centre is the proposed site for the new Kirkliston High School. Picture: Neil Hanna. Neil Hanna Photography www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk 07702 246823

Following a report that the charity, which runs what until 1998 were council facilities (it still has five councillors on its board), could close some leisure centres to bridge a funding gap, it issued a statement condemning the story as “misleading”.

“There are no venue closures planned for at this time,” it said, but added, “customers should feel confident that we are doing everything we can to maintain all our venues.”

Even that statement concedes closures are possible, and a brief report about Edinburgh Leisure’s position to last week’s Policy and Sustainability committee put venue closures as number two in a list of five options if the organisation was forced to pay at least the Real Living Wage (RLW) of £12 an hour to all employees.

This year the council paid Edinburgh Leisure a basic grant of £6.7 million, £400,000 less than in !998-99, and is set to cut a Covid-related top-up grant from £2m to £1m.

Since 1998, its income has risen from £6.8m to £28.7m, but as expenditure has gone from £13.8m to £36.2m, the gap between revenue and costs has widened by around half a million, and it already faces a deficit of nearly £750,000. It claims that paying the RLW, as demanded by the SNP, would put the deficit up to £3.6m.

The board was recently given a presentation titled “Venue Closures” which identified eight locations which could save £2m if the shutters came down, including the Kirkliston and Gracemount leisure centres and the Portobello and Glenogle swim centres.

If I’m not mistaken, one of the councillors then leaked the details to the Local Democracy Reporter, who covers council affairs for a number of publications, including the Evening News. No doubt there will be stern words at the next board meeting, but in the meantime having a pop at the story had to do.

Oh no, say Edinburgh Leisure, it was just to “illustrate the scale of these challenges and the potential impact on services”. In which case, why did last week’s report not just say the pay increase would need savings the equivalent of leisure centre closures, rather than spell it out as an option?

Ironically, City of Edinburgh Council wants to replace the Kirkliston leisure centre with a new school, now the subject of a local dispute because of an issue over conditions attached to the land when it was passed to the authority decades ago.

Rather than attack the report, Edinburgh Leisure should be glad it’s out because public pressure can be brought to bear to make sure the council doesn’t eat into the basic budget as well as the top-up when its budget is set next month.

But with a dreadful local government settlement from the SNP Scottish Government, this is only the start of it, and just a squeak compared to the howls of despair from organisations of all shapes and sizes which rely on council funds to one extent or another when they learn how much less they are going to get in the coming year. And far from blaming reporters, they’ll want publicity for their causes.