TALKING POINT

BH LIVE

Bournemouth Borough Council partnered with BH Live to manage its sports and leisure facilities, saving £11.5m over 11 years

Tony Williams Chief executive, Bournemouth Borough Council

BH Live has worked

diversity of services has improved, the

with the council

cultural programme has grown and the

to protect public

council has saved £4.5m, with a further £7m

In 2010, we at Bournemouth Borough

services, improve

to be saved over the next five years.

Council outsourced the management of

facilities, get more

BH Live has also attracted footfall into the

our leisure centres and venues to the social

people taking part

town through business tourism and sustains

enterprise, BH Live. This was an excellent

in physical activity

approximately 4,500 local jobs.

fit given our shared values and ambitions.

and cultural events

The social enterprise and partnership

Partnering with BH Live has enabled us

and boost the local economy by bringing

model can create a win-win situation for

more business events into the region.

local authorities by enabling them to achieve

to maintain and improve the quality of the entertainment, sport and leisure facilities

Participation in physical activity has

for the benefit of local residents and visitors.

increased, the quality of facilities and

James Lewis Councillor, executive board member with responsibility for sport, Leeds

educational success

We’re fortunate in Leeds that many of our

a n d st i m u l at i n g

leaders understand this, and ongoing work

economic growth

is looking at a wider approach to addressing

their social ambitions, despite extremely challenging constraints on their budgets.

and development

physical inactivity, rather than it being led

Leeds City Council remains the biggest

in the city. We know

by the leisure and sport services alone.

provider of sport and leisure in the city,

that for this strategy

Increasing sport and physical activity can

however the current budget challenges

to succeed we must

present so many positive outcomes, but

for local government are huge.

position sport and

it’s a job for the whole city to work towards

Now more than ever, income from and

physical activity at the heart of council policy-

together and if we can achieve this it will

investment in facilities that address key

making and engage with senior leaders to

go a long way to sustaining and growing the

public policy agendas, such as physical

ensure they’re advocates of this change.

sport and physical activity offer.

activity and health is extremely important. To address these challenges we’ve refocused our work in sport and leisure. We’re being creative in tackling physical inactivity and using sport and activity as a cost-effective way of addressing health inequalities, boosting

36 Issue 128  November/December 2016

We must position sport and physical activity at the heart of council policymaking and engage with senior leaders sportsmanagement.co.uk