Adur Community Leisure to close - 150 redundant

Adur Community Leisure’s trustees have decided to wind down the company “due largely to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic”, parent company Impulse Leisure said in a statement yesterday.

“It is with deep regret that as part of this process all staff have been notified of their redundancy or pending redundancy from the company,” it said.

The firm was contracted by Adur District Council to run Lancing Manor Leisure Centre, Southwick Leisure Centre and Wadurs Community Pool in Shoreham.

It also runs The Gym Hub in Worthing and Storrington Leisure Centre.

Adur Community Leisure was contracted to run three leisure centres in Lancing, Shoreham, and Southwick. Photo: Paul Gillett

But last month it announced it was in severe financial difficulty and appealed to the district council for a bailout of at least £1 million, a sum the council said it could not pay.

Shortly before councillors were set to decide the centres’ futures on July 7, Adur Community Leisure withdrew the request and asked for a smaller amount of cash, a district council spokesman claimed.

But while council chiefs were considering the offer, the company announced yesterday it had decided to go into voluntary liquidation.

District council leader Councillor Neil Parkin said yesterday he stood by the decision not to pay the original bailout.

“We found ourselves in an impossible situation in that the sums asked of us were far too large, with a significant risk we wouldn’t get it back and the operator would still fail,” he said.

Cllr Parkin defended the decision not to bail out the leisure centre firm

“This latest news proves we were right to be circumspect.

“The council has done everything possible to support Impulse moving forward.

“But we also have a duty to local taxpayers to ensure local services are operated efficiently and we cannot place a large financial burden on the authority to prop up an external organisation.

“We are very sorry this has happened and our sympathies go out to those whose jobs are now threatened.”

Cllr Parkin (pictured above) said the district council will now “find a way to return leisure services to the community”.

Last month council environment chief Councillor Emma Evans said a search had begun for a new contractor to run the leisure centres.

Adur Community Leisure was 15 years into a 30-year contract awarded by the district council to run leisure services.

It received a yearly service fee from the council as well as any financial surplus it made from the centres.

The firm announced its liquidation just five days before leisure centres across the country will be allowed to reopen.

Four leisure centres in Worthing run by South Downs Leisure will finally open their doors on Saturday with social distancing measures, alongside others across Britain.

• At The Argus, we are championing the work of traders during the coronavirus pandemic as part of our #BackingSussexBusiness campaign. We are always interested to hear how the community is coming together in this crisis. If you know of a local business battling to do all it can in these tough times and/or offering support to the local community, please get in touch at laurie.churchman@theargus.co.uk and rose.lock@theargus.co.uk.