Kirklees Active Leisure hikes prices despite £6m bailout from council

KAL is responsible for managing 12 leisure centres in Kirklees on behalf of the council. Last year, it was announced that three leisure centres – Batley Baths and Recreation Centre, Colne Valley’s Swimming Pool and Deighton Sports Arena – would be ‘temporarily’ closing their doors due to KAL’s financial difficulties, primarily relating to increased energy costs.

Now, Colne Valley has reopened though the future of the Batley and Deighton Leisure centres still hangs in the balance.

To help KAL out with its financial troubles, Kirklees Council allocated a £6m rescue package in its budget for the upcoming financial year. However, it seems that this has been insufficient as KAL’s prices are on the up for both clubs and customers.

When we asked KAL how much their prices had increased for the public, a spokesperson said: “KAL’s prices generally increase in April, often in line with inflation, but depending on what we consider the market can take and bearing in mind what is charged by other providers, such as Edu Lettings, local private sector competitors and the other West Yorkshire leisure operators.

“There is therefore no set per cent increase that is applied. Swimming products in particular, given the major cost increases in operating swimming pools, are likely to have slightly larger increases.”

Now, further increases are on the way for clubs hiring KAL’s facilities for their activities. In around three weeks time, a 15 per cent hike will be implemented for pool hire and the cost of lifeguard cover will be rising from £14 per hour to £21 per hour.

KAL will also be reviewing off-peak hire times and the discount currently in place for SwimMark accredited clubs.

A KAL spokesperson said: “KAL work closely with our local swimming clubs, supporting them to provide local opportunities to swim as part of the overall Kirklees Aquatics Pathway, an approach which has been in place since 2012 and which has been recognised by Swim England as an example of good practice.

“Due to the huge increases in the costs of operating swimming pools across the UK, both due to increases in energy and staffing costs, as well as the high cost of inflation, KAL is unfortunately having to pass some of these costs onto the local swimming clubs. These are the first increases in hire rates and lifeguard costs since 2013, as KAL has tried hard to keep costs to a reasonable level to help clubs where possible.

“While Kirklees Council has agreed to provide a considerable amount of funding to KAL to help support the Charity’s operating costs, given the scale of the financial pressures facing KAL there is also a need for reasonable increases to be made to some of the pricing charged to both customers and clubs which use the KAL managed facilities, with this income included within KAL’s 2023/24 budget.

“KAL are currently providing significant pool hire discounts of 25 per cent to clubs with a club mark accreditation and provide further discounts for off peak use of 50 per cent. KAL will be looking to review all the terms and conditions of hire going forward.

“KAL continue to support all the local aquatics clubs and would like to encourage local people to contact their local club if they are interested in joining as swimmers or as volunteers. Various local clubs have commented to KAL that they are not currently at capacity and would welcome new members and volunteers.”