Council tax payers in Blandford will not be asked again to pay extra to support the town’s leisure centre – to which they have contributed half a million pounds over the last ten years.


Town councillors have agreed that they have fulfilled the commitment they gave in 2009 to support the centre with £50,000 a year for ten years when the centre was threatened with closure. They were told Dorset Council believed a further £50,000 payment was due, but investigations confirmed that the town council had already made ten payments. And they agreed on September 28 that the council was not minded to renew its service level agreement with Dorset Council over the leisure centre.

Town and county councillor Nocturin Lacey Clarke, who made the proposal – seconded by fellow county councillor Byron Quayle – said: “I can’t see it means anything will change. But Dorset Council will have to find another £50,000 from this year’s budget.” Councillor Lynn Lindsay, whose proposal that the council should not make an 11th payment was seconded by Councillor Lacey Clarke, said: “It would be a travesty for us to pay more, and we would have to reconsult to do so.”

Councillor Steve Hitchings, who as then district councillor chaired a Blandford Leisure Action Group at the time of the original agreement, said: “We said at the beginning that the leisure centre was important, and it would have closed without our support.” But he said Dorset Council have now signed an extension of the contract to 2025 with Everyone Active which will then be amalgamated into one contract for all council-run leisure centres, and there were big players who would love to have it.

A report to Dorset Council last month revealed that Blandford Leisure Centre, which reopened on July 25 after four months of lockdown, had been busy with more than 1,250 visits from members keen to get back in the gym, where additional safety measures include one-way systems, enhance cleaning regimes and structure sessions. Group exercise classes were operating at over 85 per cent capacity, with additional classes added in September, and swimming lessons and bookable lane swimming were similarly proving popular.

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