‘No cost to tax payer’ as service company that helped run Torridge leisure centres goes into administration

Tax payers won’t be affected after the company that helped to run three leisure centres in Torridge went into administration.

Torridge District Council has said the running of centres in Northam, Torrington and Holsworthy will not be impacted after Active Nation, which processed payroll and membership subscriptions, ceased trading earlier in April.

The transfer of all payments to the council’s leisure company Active Torridge is now almost complete and running the centres hasn’t been affected, says the authority.

At a meeting of the council’s community and resources committee on Monday (April 14), chairman Councillor Robert Hicks, who is also a director of Active Torridge, said they are resolving the issues.

The council has since clarified that this is ‘purely a back-office administrative issue and there will be no additional cost to council taxpayers’.

Customer bookings and memberships have continued as normal.

Cllr Chris Leather told the meeting he is aggrieved that he had read about the issue in the press first and said all councillors should have been emailed about it.

He added: “I know Active Torridge is an arm’s length company, but the chief executive is quoted in that article, I opened the paper last week and read it and thought I don’t know anything about this.”

Mr Hearse said a press release went out shortly after the company ceased trading and all members of the council received that.

The company and the council are closely linked. Council boss Steve Hearse and head of communities and place Sean Kearney are among the directors of Active Torridge, along with council leader Cllr Ken James, plus councillors Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin and Lyndon Piper.

Warwickshire-based Active Nation, which also ran leisure centres in Lincoln that have now closed, along with other services, said high energy bills and the cost of living crisis contributed to its downfall.

TDC set up its own leisure company in 2022 to manage the council’s three key centres and is due to open a new facility in the former Bideford Library next year as part of a refurbishment of the town hall complex.

The contract has now been extended to 2032 after Active Torridge outperformed ambitions set in its original business plan in the first two years of trading – despite energy costs and inflation.