West Dunbartonshire Council
Report by the Director of Education and Cultural Services
Children’s Services Committee: 15 March 2006
Subject: Proposal for increased swimming lesson charges in 2006/2007
1. Purpose
1.1 To propose an increase in the current charges applied to swimming lessons delivered by the Sports Development Unit, Education and Cultural Services Department.
2. Background
2.1 West Dunbartonshire Council’s Swimming Development programme has continued to maintain very high levels of quality service over the past ten years. Over two thousand children participate in the Swimming Development programme every week. This programme has a strong link with Housing and Technical Services as the programme is delivered within their three sports centres; The Vale of Leven Swimming Pool, The Meadow Centre in Dumbarton and The Playdrome in Clydebank.
2.2 Maintaining income levels over the past ten years has been achieved by increasing the number of classes provided by the service. However facility availability is a finite resource and the development programme is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain growth in the numbers participating in the programme.
2.3 In partnership with Leisure Services, Housing and Technical Services Department, the successful ‘Passport to Leisure’ scheme continues to apply for the booking of Sports Development’s swimming lessons. This scheme provides members with a 20% discount on the prices of all swimming lessons. While the ‘Passport to Leisure’ scheme has been a success for Housing and Technical Services, in terms of the numbers of people becoming members, it has had the effect of reducing substantially the income being generated by Education and Cultural Services ‘Learn to Swim Scheme’. This situation is making it increasingly difficult for the programme to achieve its income targets.
2.4 The fact that the Swimming Development programme is labour intensive, given its instructional nature with an instructor/participant ratio of 1:10, also makes it increasingly difficult to achieve increasing income targets.
Page 1 of 7 3. Main Issues
Swimming Lessons
3.1 Comparisons between prices in several local authorities similar in size and in proximity to West Dunbartonshire reveal that the cost of West Dunbartonshire Council swimming lessons currently appears to be the lowest in Scotland.
3.2 The local authorities that were contacted and their charges per swimming lesson are detailed below. Some local authorities have eight lessons per block, as opposed to ten in West Dunbartonshire. The cost per junior lesson provides a more accurate comparison of swimming lesson prices.
West Dunbartonshire £16.50 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £1.65
1. Argyll & Bute £36.00 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £3.60 2. Aberdeenshire £25.50 for eight lessons: cost per lesson £3.23 3. Inverclyde £27.50 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.75 4. Perth & Kinross £27.00 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.70 5. Stirling £26.00 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.60 6. Falkirk £26.00 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.60 7. East Dunbartonshire £25.00 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.50 8. North Lanarkshire £20.00 for eight lessons: cost per lesson £2.50 9. Glasgow £19.00 for eight lessons: cost per lesson £2.38 10. East Ayrshire £23.80 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.38 11. Clackmannanshire £18.40 for eight lessons: cost per lesson £2.30 12. Angus £22.00 for ten lessons: cost per lesson £2.20
3.3 At £16.50 for a block of ten swimming lessons, West Dunbartonshire is significantly lower than other local authorities. It should also be highlighted that all of the prices listed above will increase further as from April 2006.
3.4 If the ‘Passport to Leisure’ scheme discount is applied to West Dunbartonshire Council’s charge, the swim scheme only generates £13.20 income for a block of ten swimming lessons. This highlights how cheap West Dunbartonshire Council’s swimming lessons are and how it increases the difficulties experienced by Sports Development in achieving increased income targets.
Page 2 of 7 3.5 The graphs below provide a further comparison of the swimming lesson prices from a selection of Scottish local authorities for both children and adults.
A Comparison of Local Authorities Swimming Lesson Prices in 2005/2006
£4.00 £3.75 £3.60 £3.50 £3.23 £3.25
£3.00 £2.75 £2.70 £2.60 £2.60 £2.75 £2.50 £2.50 £2.38 £2.38 £2.50 £2.30 £2.25 £2.00 £2.00 £1.75 £1.50 £1.25 £1.00 £0.75 £0.50 £0.25
Cost Per (Child)Lesson £0.00
Falkirk
Stirling
Glasgow
East
Inverclyde
West West
East Ayrshire
Aberdeenshire
Argyll and Bute
Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire
North North Lanarkshire
Perth and Kinross Clackmannanshire Local Authority
A Comparison of Local Authorities Swimming Lesson Prices in 2005/2006
£6.00 £5.10 £5.00 £4.20 £4.00 £4.10 £3.75 £4.00 £3.38 £3.00 £2.90 £3.00 £3.00 £2.70
£2.00 £1.65
£1.00 Cost per lesson (adult)
£0.00
Falkirk
Glasgow
Inverclyde
West
East Ayrshire
Angus Council
Aberdeenshire
Argyll and Bute
Dunbartonshire
North Lanarkshire
Perth and Kinross Clackmannanshire Local Authority
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4. Limited availability of swimming lessons for West Dunbartonshire Council residents
4.1 As can be seen from the graph, West Dunbartonshire Council has extremely low charges for swimming lessons. As a result, people who live out-with West Dunbartonshire take large numbers of the available spaces in the swim scheme programme.
4.2 There is a huge demand for swimming lessons in West Dunbartonshire, and in response to this, additional lessons were organised. This, however, has not helped large numbers of residents in West Dunbartonshire as people from Helensburgh, Drymen, Balfron, Glasgow and East Dunbartonshire are travelling into West Dunbartonshire for cheaper swimming lessons.
4.3 The Passport to Leisure scheme enables local residents to get a 20% discount on charges. The same scheme also provides residents from other local authorities with a 15% discount. This obviously still provides people from other authorities with substantially cheaper lessons than they could access in their local area
5. Proposed charges for swimming lessons in 2006/2007
5.1 With the current economic climate within West Dunbartonshire Council, and to align the charges of the swimming lessons with other local authorities, the following increases are being proposed.
Actual Proposed Description 2005/2006 2006/2007
Junior Swimming Lessons (10) £16.50 £20.00 (5 hours instruction time) 20% discount = £16
Non Residents = £24.00 15% discount = £20.40
Adult Swimming Lessons (5) £16.50 £22.00 (5 hours instruction time) 20% discount = £17.60 Concession - 50% discount = £11.00
Non Residents = £26.00 15% discount = £22.10
Page 4 of 7 • The graph below shows that even with the increased charge for 06/07 the costs are still substantially lower than other local authority’s charges. It is anticipated that local authorities will increase their charges next year, further indicating the need to increase prices in West Dunbartonshire.
A Comparison of Local Authorities Swimming Lesson Prices with Proposed Increased Charges
£4.00 £3.75 £3.60 £3.50 £3.25 £3.23 £3.00 £2.75 £2.70 £2.75 £2.60 £2.60 £2.50 £2.50 £2.38 £2.38 £2.50 £2.30 £2.25 £2.00 £2.00 £1.75 £1.50 £1.25 £1.00
Cost Lesson Per (Child) £0.75 £0.50 £0.25
£0.00
Falkirk
Stirling
Glasgow
Inverclyde
East Ayrshire
Aberdeenshire
Argyll and Bute
North Lanarkshire
Perth and Kinross
Clackmannanshire
East Dunbartonshire West Dunbartonshire
5.2 The Sports Development Unit is now with Education and Cultural Services Department, however Housing and Technical Services ‘Passport to Leisure’ scheme could continue to be included in the charge to provide local residents with an additional discount. The discounts that would apply are shown in the table on page 4.
5.3 It is unlikely that this increase would have any adverse affect on swimming lessons, as they would remain substantially cheaper than other local authorities and demand is exceptionally high throughout the programme.
5.4 As shown above, non-West Dunbartonshire Council taxpayers are being provided with a service that is substantially cheaper than they can access within their own local authority. The additional proposal is that the cost of swimming lessons to junior and adult non-residents is increased to £24 and £26 respectively. This would reduce the number of non-residents accessing a cheaper service out-with their local authority, thus increasing the availability of swimming lessons to West Dunbartonshire Council residents. Passport to Leisure members would continue to receive a 15% discount on all charges.
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6. Personnel Issues
6.1 There are no personal issues.
7. Financial Implications
7.1 These proposals, if agreed, will mean a small cost increase to residents of West Dunbartonshire Council with a larger increase in cost to non residents.
8. Recommendations
8.1 Members are requested to approve l increase of charges for the “learn to swim” scheme to be effective from 1 April 2006.
8.2 A further report will be submitted in March 2007.
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Bob Cook Director of Education and Cultural Services
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Person to Contact: Alan Crawford, Section Leader, Sports Development, 6/14 Bridge Street, Dumbarton, G82 1NT. Tel: (01389) 737075 e-mail: [email protected]
Wards Affected: All wards affected
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