By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
Rushcliffe Borough Council’s bookable venues are struggling to hit their pre-pandemic usage numbers, with some locations under-performing financially.
The council’s Communities Scrutiny Group met last Thursday (July 25) to discuss their venue and site hire targets and outcomes.
The council has several community venues across the borough it hires out to the public.
Six venues and locations are used this way; as Rushcliffe Arena, Sir Julian Cahn Pavilion, West Park Sports Pavilion meeting room, Gamston Community Hall, Gresham Sports Park and Rushcliffe Country Park Education Centre conference room.
From April 2023 to March 2024, five of the venues failed to hit their financial targets, leading to them falling £43,000 short of a £144,000 income target for the sites.
Gresham Sports Park returned the lowest income for the council’s venues, only hitting around 26 per cent of target, making £3,398 compared to a proposed £13,100 goal.
Gamston Community Hall hit around 62 per cent of its target, making £34,742 of its goal of £56,100.
Derek Hayden, senior officer of Lead Specialist Communities, said: “It’s only fair to say that we have had challenges in a post-covid world with covid recovery and trying to hit our budgetary targets.
“There’s many reasons for that, we’re very proud of the fact that Gamston Community Hall was used for a vaccination centre and provided over 100,000 vaccinations, but that facility was closed for a year… some people had to find alternative venues and we needed to do a significant level of refurbishment because it was very heavily used.”
Rushcliffe Arena, the Council’s most notable location that is home to a gym, fitness studios and swimming pools was the only site to make more money that targeted, at £20,653 compared with the goal of £16,500.
The council’s income for hiring out their open spaces and playing pitches performed better in the last financial year, however, enabling their income from locations to even out.
The total income for their open spaces settled at £275,180 compared to their target of £220,900,
A report to the scrutiny group shows the fees and charges to hire venues rose by 10 per cent to be in line with inflation.
The council has lost around 13 regular bookings during the previous financial year due to retirement, business closures or through people finding alternative venues.
According to the report, Rushcliffe Borough Council’s target usage rate across their venues is 50 per cent but this has not been achieved since before the pandemic, with around 33 per cent in 2023 to 2024 and 29 per cent in 2022 to 2023.
The report read: “Covid-19 recovery has been further impaired by the cost-of-living crisis and loss of several regular hirers due to financial pressures upon small businesses.”
The council is running a range of measures to try to boost booking, including reviewing fees and charges, reviewing discounts and promotional rates, contracts for regular hires, improving venue marketing and improving booking systems.
