Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Alderman Humphrey and Councillors Cunningham, McCabe and Mac Giolla Mhín.

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 17th January, it had agreed to defer, to a further special meeting, consideration of a report on the proposed Scale of Charges for Parks and Leisure facilities for 2012/2013. This would afford Members an opportunity to give due consideration to the revised charges and allow the report to be amended to include an additional column showing the percentage increase/decrease compared to the previous year.  Accordingly, the Committee considered the undernoted report and a revised Scale of Charges which had been tabled by the Director and included information on the percentage increase/decrease of the variances proposed, copies of which was made available for inspection on the Council’s modern.gov website.

“1  Relevant Background Information

1.1Fees and charges for the use of facilities within Parks and Leisure Services are reviewed annually in line with the estimates process and revised rates implemented with effect from 1 April.

1.2At December 2011 Committee the framework for the review of the Boost membership scheme within Leisure Services was agreed.  Committee was also asked to note that further work was underway to ensure consistent pricing and concessions across the department and a scale of fees and charges would be presented to committee in January 2012 as part of the annual review of fees and charges within the department.

2    Key Issues

2.1Concessionary Discounts across the department

      The review of fees and charges within the department has highlighted the variety of concessions within the different activities in the department that range from 20% to 70% discount.  It is proposed that a concessionary rate of approximately 50% of the full rate will be applied across all activities in relation to over 60s, those on means tested benefits, students and children.  Members should note that this would remove all other concessionary memberships including Means Tested Benefits (MTB) membership.

2.2Belfast Castle and Malone House

      These venues have seen income adversely affected by the economic downturn.  The venues regularly benchmark against local venues and hotels to ensure that their rates are competitive.  The corporate market has been impacted significantly from the reduction in internal customers and from across the public sector.  It is proposed to endeavour to stimulate this market by a reduction in room hire charges of up to 20% in some areas.  In relation to the weddings market the venues generate approximately 50/35% of their income each year (Belfast Castle/Malone House) and it is proposed that between 4-7% increases are recommended.  Other promotions will also be put in place during the year to help stimulate usage and these will be reported back through to committee.

2.3Belfast Zoo

      A benchmarking exercise was carried out with other zoos in the UK and Ireland.  The results show that Belfast is the cheapest zoo for adult admissions and that currently it does not charge over 60s while all other zoos apply a 10-25% average discount to this group.  The proposal is to increase the summer adult admission to £10 (a £1.10  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

            The Committee agreed that its next scheduled meeting, to be held on 9th February, would commence at 4.30 p.m. with a briefing session in respect of the outstanding issues within the revised Scale of Charges and that the normal business would follow at 5.15 p.m.