Louder for those at the back – outsourcing and privatisation doesn’t work! MacCoitir slams Leisure Centre costs increase!
The disastrous decision taken by Belfast City Council in 2014 to outsource and privatise our leisure centres has now be proven to be undemocratic with revelations revealed in last Wednesdays council meeting.
The decision to outsource/privatise our publicly owned leisure centres from Belfast City Council to Greenwich Leisure Limited (a supposed ‘social enterprise’) was met with fierce criticism and protest from communities in 2014. Despite this, many Belfast councillors voted to plough ahead and turn over all 16 leisure centres and sites to GLL.
With news that GLL are attempting to implement a cost increase across leisure services next year, the meeting involved a mention of the outcome of a legal opinion which had ruled that GLL was automatically entitled, under the contract arrangements, to increase leisure charges in line with the annual increase in the consumer price index, without seeking approval from anyone.
Belfast City Council solicitor John Walsh stated: “It will be no surprise to members, and I have said this before, this is an arm’s length legal arrangement, so legal control of this rests with GLL. So you may have an opinion on it, but ultimately in my view it is perverse to bring it back, because you can’t change anything.”
Following last week’s council meeting Lasair Dhearg spokesperson Pádraic Mac Coitir commented: “As bad as the situation already was with workers conditions, job losses and rising prices, the revelations from Belfast City Council’s solicitor on Wednesday shows the situation to be much worse.”
“At a time when working class communities are under attack with cuts to benefits, increased housing and energy costs alongside wage stagnation, the idea that costs should be increased is completely wrong. The revelations that Belfast City Councillors are now legally powerless to actually prevent this price increase shows how incorrect this whole undemocratic ‘partnership’ was to begin with. For those who opposed this deal in 2014, we have been proven to be correct.”
Pádraic said, “We call on Belfast City Council to take back control of our leisure centres from GLL/Better to end this disastrous and undemocratic ‘partnership’, these leisure centres belong in the hands of the people not a ‘social enterprise’.”
ENDS
