Questions remain over the future of Calderdale centre used by 30,000 people

For the second time in as many months Calderdale Council’s Place Scrutiny Board considered the fate of the Threeways centre in Ovenden, Halifax, which serves people of three wards and includes a busy sports centre.

Last summer the council issued a notice to take it back into its control from Centre at Threeways Ltd, amid concerns over the charity’s financial viability and other issues relating to the building, including health and safety.

In terms of financial viability the social enterprise detailed plans two years ago for a homes scheme on land at the back of the site, which it claims would have raised around £750,000 to fund work which it and the council were aware needed doing on the site, but the council turned down the proposal, heard the Scrutiny Board in January when members asked for an updated report on the situation..

After almost two hours’ discussion in private and then public session, Scrutiny Board members recommended to the council’s Cabinet that after the authority took back control of the centre council officers be asked to consider options for the community to have a major role in running the sports centre part of Threeways.

But the resolution gave no guarantee Centre at Threeways would be considered.

Centre at Threeways directors told the board at the latest meeting they accepted maintaining the status quo at the centre as a whole was not going to happen.

But they believed the community company was delivering a very good, strong, sports and leisure offer to the people of north Halifax and asked the council to allow them to keep doing this.

They had met with council officers since the last scrutiny board meeting, said one of the centre’s board of directors, Lawrence Fear.

“We thought we had a very different proposal to move forward, where the Centre at Threeways would continue to have responsibility for sports on the site while transferring the rest of the site back to the council,” said Mr Fear.

But it had become clear there was not an option for this offer to be considered if Centre at Threeways handed the lease back to the council, he said.

The council’s Director of Economy and Environment, Mark Thompson, said health and safety issues were the driver behind its actions and were paramount.

That said, the reports he had received were that the sports centre building was in better condition than the rest of the estate.

“But we need to get into the building and find out a little bit more about it before, as a council, we know where we stand, and then ask questions about what happens next.

“We need to deal with the health and safety issue first and foremost,” he said.

Mr Fear said council officers had visited and Centre at Threeways had received a list of health and safety issues that needed attention – these had all been speedily dealt with.

Centre at Threeways board Chair Emma Carter said councillors should recognise one of the reasons the sports centre ran so well was that it could call on a lot of volunteers who sustained it because it was a charity, not because it was council-run. It brought health, fitness and social benefits to the area.

Ovenden ward councillor Coun Helen Rivron (Lab) said she thought a lot of progress had been made towards an agreement that could work for everybody, combining the expertise of the council to stabilise the building and the expertise of the trustees in terms of the social value they brought, meeting aims of the council’s Anti-Poverty strategy.

She hoped dialogue would continue over a very important resource for the area.

Scrutiny Board Chair Coun George Robinson (Con, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe) said he liked the sound of the sports centre option but also understood the council’s point of view.

Coun Roisin Cavanagh (Lab, Luddenden Foot) asked Mr Thompson what the proposal’s implication was for the council.

Mr Thompson said the problem was the lease for Threeways as a whole could not be apportioned or divided.

“It was granted as one so has to come back as that.

“We can’t deal any longer with that flux of uncertainty. We have to have clarity for the safety of the people whose use Threeways site now and in the future,” he said.

Centre at Threeways directors said their concern was that their asset would disappear as a result.

Mr Fear said Centre at Threeways had responded to the health and safety issues, dealt with them and reported back on each one.