Fife Sport and Leisure Trust celebrate record breaking rise in numbers

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Record breaking member numbers saw Fife Sport and Leisure Trust go from strength to strength in 2023-24.

The charitable trust which manages the region’s leisure centres and swimming pools logged nearly 2.4 million visits as a new membership scheme triggered a “record breaking” 24% growth in new numbers, according to the latest figures. Financially, the trust also exceeded its own targets, and the support required from Fife Council reduced by nearly £1 million.

The upbeat report was presented to the local authority’s People and Communities Scrutiny Committee by Emma Walker, chief executive.

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“With full operational recovery and attendances of almost restored to pre-pandemic levels achieving 2.4million attendances, the trust is well on its way to recovering financially with income generation of £9 million due to the focus on quality assurance and service delivery,” she said.

Emma Walker, chief executiveEmma Walker, chief executive
Emma Walker, chief executive

Over the past couple of years, the trust has been focused on its‘Back to 100’ campaign which essentially aimed to get it back to where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic first began to disrupt services five years ago. With almost 2.4 million visits to sport and leisure centres last year, it achieved 95% of that target; a figure Ms Walker called a “fantastic result” due to the closures encountered in the year.

But it’s not just visitor numbers that have improved.

At the start of 2024, FSLT launched a new membership scheme that offered access to more venues with two simple pricing options. It has also been a financial success with membership numbers and income growing “beyond pre-pandemic levels”.

“It was quite a brave move because we bucked the trend,” Ms Walker said. “We absolutely simplified our membership; we reduced the pricing quite considerably; and we made our access probably one of the most competitive, if not the cheapest, in the country.”

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The main pool at Michael Woods Sports Centre, GlenrothesThe main pool at Michael Woods Sports Centre, Glenrothes
The main pool at Michael Woods Sports Centre, Glenrothes

The trust started this transformative journey in January 2024 with around 12,000 members. By the end of March, that had “increased dramatically” to well over 15,000. It also expanded its fitness programme to offer over 250 weekly classes and boosted its health and wellbeing programme, which supports people with long-term health conditions, to over over 90 classes each week. A ‘Learn to Swim’ programme also grew to over 8,000 participants, and saw it recognised by Scottish Water as the ‘Swimming Provider of the Year’ in 2023.

“This is obviously a success story in what you’ve achieved here,” Councillor Ian Cameron (Labour for Kirkcaldy East) said.

Councillor Ken Caldwell (SNP for Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages) added: “It’s really great to see the trust back up to pre-covid numbers. It’s fantastic, and it’s been a fantastic effort to get more member numbers.”

Scrutiny councillors also praised the strong attendance and membership figures last week but continued to question the chief executive about the challenges it is still facing. She said the biggest issue remains the budget position which has been a battle over the “last number of years”.

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Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre (Pic: Fife Free Press)Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre (Pic: Fife Free Press)
Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre (Pic: Fife Free Press)

“We have increased our income position from pre-Covid, but it just so happens that we’re experiencing increased inflation and increases on expenditure as well,” Ms Walker said.

The trust had a small deficit at the end of the 2023-24 year which the council supported. However, Ms Walker said that in the current year, it is looking at a fully balanced budget position.

“Going forward, we will work together with Fife Council, and other partners, to deliver the growth and innovation required to meet the challenges of the future and enable as many Fife residents as possible to enjoy the benefits of participating in physical activity and sport,” she said.

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