Council leisure company Brimhams Active is to spend at least £8,000 of public money on a staff awards ceremony this weekend.
Brimhams operates all leisure provision in the Harrogate district on behalf of North Yorkshire Council, including leisure centres in Harrogate, Ripon Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge, as well as Starbeck Baths.
A source alerted the Stray Ferret to Sunday’s event at the Pavilions of Harrogate. They added:
“I would think as a North Yorkshire Council-owned company, the council taxpayers’ money they have left at the end of a financial year would go back to the council rather than finding an excuse to spend it, particularly given the increases we’ve all had on our council tax bills this week.”
The new Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre
The Stray Ferret contacted North Yorkshire Council for further details of the event, including the cost.
Mark Tweedie, managing director of Brimhams Active, initially said costs had been “kept to a minimum by suppliers sponsoring the awards” but did not disclose a figure.
He added:
“Our annual people awards event is a fabulous opportunity to recognise and celebrate effort and achievement.
“The event itself helps our people who work day-to-day across different facilities to come together and connect. It plays a huge part in boosting morale, which in turn helps enhance workforce productivity.
“Up to 200 members of our team will attend the awards event at the Pavilions of Harrogate.”
When pressed for a figure, Mr Tweedie said:
“The venue hire and food is charged at £40 per person and we have 200 people attending. We are very careful in how we manage our budget. We believe this is a sound, proportionate investment in our people that helps to optimise people recruitment, retention and productivity for a business with a circa £8 million turnover.
“This investment serves to acknowledge and celebrate outstanding team and individual efforts that have delivered remarkable results, including overachieving in relation to footfall and budget and achievement of national accreditations (Quest and Water Wellbeing) within 2.5 years of the company’s inception.”
He added “the decorations are provided by staff” and the photographer and DJ were “providing their services in kind”.
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Brimhams to be abolished
Brimhams Active, which was set-up up by the now defunct Harrogate Borough Council, is due to be abolished after executive councillors decided to bring leisure provision back in-house in January.
The council’s current portfolio, which includes 19 leisure centres, 16 swimming pools, three wellbeing hubs, a nursery and Harrogate’s Turkish Baths, is run by five different operators.
But despite councillors stating the existing Brimhams model is “particularly advanced”, the leisure shake-up will see all these services moved to a single in-house operation.
The local authority believes the new structure will see a greater focus on health and wellbeing, provide more opportunities for people to participate and will focus on addressing inequalities.
It hopes the transition will be complete by 2028.
