Latest: In an article published in the Brentwood Gazette on Wednesday 25th November 2020, the Brentwood Centre has announced plans to re-open soon.
I was very sad to hear the news this week that Brentwood Leisure Trust, which runs the Brentwood Centre and several of the town's community halls, has ceased trading.
The Brentwood Centre is a superb local facility which everyone living in the Borough of Brentwood will have visited at some point in their lives, be it to learn to swim, play football, do gymnastics, dance, use the gym, watch live music and comedy or visit one of the huge craft, wedding or carp fishing fairs. I have twice been elected as Member of Parliament at the end of a long election count in the Brentwood Centre's main sports hall, and have experienced the highs and lows of local election counts there too (pictured). Sadly, I understand the ongoing costs of running the Centre, coupled with the immense pressure on finances caused by its closure during the pandemic lockdown, have been too much for the Trust. Brentwood Borough Council, which has worked tirelessly to support Brentwood Leisure Trust since the Trust was formed in 2004, has issued a statement about the future of the Centre:
"The Brentwood Leisure Trust ceased trading today [27th October] and closed the Brentwood Centre and community halls. Brentwood Borough Council is committed to ensuring the Brentwood Leisure Centre and halls can open to residents as soon as possible and is working towards achieving this goal.
Brentwood Borough Council is a publicly funded local government authority and there are various legal rules and regulations that means the Council cannot lawfully provide any further monetary, or other assistance that would give them an advantage in the market, to the Trust.
The Trust has run the centre since 2004, but has faced considerable additional financial challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.
These are difficult times for the leisure industry but the Council and its officers are working hard to re-open the centre and the community halls as soon as possible.
The Council is prioritising the mobilisation of services to safeguard valuable health and wellbeing services for our residents and for the Brentwood Leisure Trust staff affected by its decision.
As such the Council is requesting existing employees or any current service provider or business at the centre or at the community halls (Bishops Hall, Hutton Poplars, Hutton Poplars Lodge, Merrymeade House, Nightingale Centre and Willowbrook Hall) to call 01277 312500 for further information."
The Leader of Brentwood Borough Council, Cllr Chris Hossack, issued a further statement on 28th October:
"Brentwood Borough Council has provided the Brentwood Leisure Trust (BLT) with substantial assistance both financial and contractual over the last 14 years. BLT has now ceased trading owing the Council around £350,000 making the council the Trust’s largest creditor.
Over the years the Council has offered comfort to the Trust to continue to support them, this is acknowledged in their 2018/19 signed accounts available publicly at Companies House.
When asked to provide more assistance to BLT, the Council carried out due diligence which showed that there was nothing further that the Council could do that would not stray into unlawful state aid. It would have been unfair to provide assistance that would give the Trust an unfair advantage over others. It was the Council’s intention to continue to work with BLT to have an orderly handover however this has not been possible.
We knew that
1. We could not legally provide financial and other preferential assistance to BLT and
2. The amount of assistance required infringes state aid and at the Council meeting on the 7 October 2020 Councillors unanimously voted that the Council would not provide further financial or other support that would amount to state aid but would work with BLT. The Council cannot make a decision to act illegally
It then transpired that there was not enough money for BLT to fund its own payroll, they are now working closely with their insolvency practitioners. We had been looking at this for a number of months and the worst case scenario was that BLT went under. We had to look at the different scenarios, and of course what has transpired is that BLT has folded.
But the Brentwood Centre is still there and a valuable asset that is vital to people for all sorts of reasons including sport and leisure, mental wellbeing and business. It is not an option to close the Brentwood Centre. So we are going to get a temporary operator in to get it open again and in the next couple of days we will be sorting all this out.
I ask people to bear with us and the information that has been put out there makes the whole thing seem worse than it is. We anticipated this would happen, it is not straightforward but it is in hand.
The idea that we would turn the site into flats or development is not correct. The Brentwood Leisure Centre is already in my Corporate plan and earmarked for investment. This is the right thing to do. It may be a bad day today, but we can now sort out something much better moving forward.
I know that small businesses based there are struggling and in part of course this has been due to Covid-19, but we need to protect small businesses and there are fantastic people who have worked at the centre for years and we don’t want to see that expertise go.
So there might be some disruption for a couple of days but this is normal practice when something like this happens. We could not help BLT under law and we didn’t want it to close so we will work it out."
Clearly, at a time when many people are feeling overwhelmed by the stress and uncertainty of living through a global pandemic, the loss of a local leisure service, albeit on a temporary basis, is a great blow. For those who work at the Centre, it is very concerning and I would urge all BLT employees to get in touch with the Council for advice on the way forward. However, I have every confidence that Brentwood Borough Council, under the leadership of Cllr Chris Hossack, will turn this around and the Brentwood Centre will be back in action very soon.
The Leader of Brentwood Borough Council, Cllr Chris Hossack, issued a further statement on 31st October:
"As we are aware the Brentwood Leisure Trust (BLT) closed the Brentwood Centre and 6 halls on Tuesday evening (27th) making its' staff redundant. This happened suddenly as the BLT realised it could not meet it’s payroll obligations for October.
As of this weekend BLT as Leaseholder, still has not returned the keys in a formal sense, to the owner of the property and that is the Council. Furthermore the BLT will not be holding its meeting to go into liquidation until Friday 6th November - some 10 days after closing the doors.
This means that the Insolvency Practitioner cannot formally be appointed until this meeting takes place. I am disappointed with this lack of urgency being displayed by the BLT, as it affects not only the residents who want to use the facilities but also the small businesses that depend on the centre and halls being open.
Despite this, the council is progressing it’s contingency planning with an interim operator to get the centre back up and running. A mobilisation meeting is already planned for Monday and we will proceed to progress plans under the rights we have as landlord. Our plan, even in the event the trust folded, which it has, was always to get the centre and halls re-opened again asap.
However, following the Prime Minister’s Statement this evening it has become apparent that Leisure Centres will now close across England as part of the new lockdown measures that will come into effect on Thursday 5th for at least a month. These circumstances are of course beyond our control.
Notwithstanding the council will continue to make preparations at pace, so that when the halls and centre can re-open again we are ready to do so. I am also conscious that the situation is fluid and that there is pressure on the Government to consider facilities such as the Brentwood Centre as ‘essential’ given the vital contribution it makes to physical and mental well-being. So we must be prepared if circumstances change.
The centre will re-open again under new management as planned and when permissible."