NOVEMBER 2020
FUSION MAKE LEISURE STAFF REDUNDANT COUNCIL HAND OVER £600K TO FUSION LIFESTYLE
FOLLOWING the bail-out from Bedford Borough Council to re-open Robinson Pool, Fusion Lifestyle Ltd, the company that operates the Borough’s leisure facilities has given out redundancy notices to staff employed at the town’s other leisure centres. The redundancy notices state that: “These centres will not re-open in the foreseeable future – the foreseeable future is clarified as six months.” Fusion had requested assistance from the Borough Mayor, Dave Hodgson, who agreed to pay Fusion £45,500 per month for the next six months to reopen Robinson Pool and for Mowsbury Golf Course which had already reopened earlier. Bedford’s Athletics stadium is open for club use but with limited facilities. Along with this financial help, the council have also agreed to defer the Fusion management fee of £7,342 per month for six months, and continuing to defer their loan repayments of
Fusion Lifestyle Ltd are a management company contracted to run the Borough’s leisure facilities; Kempston Pool, Oasis Beach Pool, Kempston Outdoor Centre, Robinson Pool, John Bunyan Leisure Centre and Bedford Athletics Stadium.
£52,625 per month (which the council have already been doing since March). This will cost the Borough around £105k per month, (or £630k in total) just to get Robinson Pool open. The £45,500 per month is to be allocated to the council’s Covid-19 Impact Cost Centre. Cllr Sue Oliver said: “Labour Councillors are trying to get to the bottom of the issue with Fusion Lifestyle, who have performed poorly for some time. “We are disappointed with their lack of communication throughout this pandemic with both the Borough Council and residents, who are users of their facilities. I hope that the reopening of Robinson Pool has proved instructive to them on how to operate safely during the Covid 19 pandemic, and they will now prioritise the opening up of other Borough wide facilities.”
Probably… the best merger in the world…
THE Competition and Markets Authority has allowed the £780m merger between Carlsberg and Marston’s.
A joint venture between Carlsberg UK, which has a brewery in Northampton, and Marston’s PLC to form the Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company has now been approved. In 2017 Marston’s came to an agreement to purchase the Charles Wells brewery in Queen’s Park, Bedford. This purchase also included a number of Charles Wells’ beer brands. Carlsberg CEO Cees’t Hart said: “The creation of the joint venture with Marstons is an important step forward for our UK business. “The joint venture’s brand portfolio will allow us to offer a significantly stronger beer portfolio to our UK customers, and at the same time extend distribution into the Marston’s pub estate. “In addition, the combined business will bring our customers wider choice, greater capacity, product innovation, and marketing and distribution efficiency benefits.”
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Sam wears her poppy with pride By day Samantha Hughes works at Kempston’s Challenger Academy as the Exams Officer – but when the lights go down she is an accomplished, singer, banjo and ukelela player. Before Covid you could have heard her belting out Dusty Springfield or Connie Francis numbers. Now she has turned her attention to country music, think Tammy Wynette or Dolly Parton. Sam’s roots are in Irish country music, she was booked to do a set at this year’s River Festival! She is keeping her hand in – performing at local charity events. If you get the chance, go and see her perform.