Due to the merging of legacy councils in 2015, there have been two separate leisure models operating within the Borough, with the Ards side delivering in-house and North Down outsourcing to a private operator.
Yesterday (18 September), Alliance representatives voted against a joint UUP and DUP proposal to continue with the hybrid model of leisure service delivery.
Speaking after the decision, Cllr McRandal said: “I am severely disappointed by the decision taken by Council last night. The unionist parties seem to believe that outsourcing half of the Borough as a cost-saving exercise is acceptable, despite the inherent inequality of service.
“The Alliance Party wants a leisure service that functions in the best interests of everyone in the Borough. Having a unified in-house managed system could have created opportunities to improve the service, for example, by applying memberships across leisure sites and by sharing staff, skills, and resources.
“I fear that running two separate and distinct leisure service models will be inefficient and will hamper our ability to deliver effectively on our new Leisure Strategy, a key aim of which is to make leisure accessible to as many people as possible in the Borough.
“As a Councillor for Holywood and Clandeboye, the experience in my DEA has not been great in terms of service quality, and the existence of the outsourcing contract has stunted positive change.
“Alliance will continue to push for improvement for those in North Down, despite the misguided move to continue with a two-tier system.”
Yesterday (18 September), Alliance representatives voted against a joint UUP and DUP proposal to continue with the hybrid model of leisure service delivery.
Speaking after the decision, Cllr McRandal said: “I am severely disappointed by the decision taken by Council last night. The unionist parties seem to believe that outsourcing half of the Borough as a cost-saving exercise is acceptable, despite the inherent inequality of service.
“The Alliance Party wants a leisure service that functions in the best interests of everyone in the Borough. Having a unified in-house managed system could have created opportunities to improve the service, for example, by applying memberships across leisure sites and by sharing staff, skills, and resources.
“I fear that running two separate and distinct leisure service models will be inefficient and will hamper our ability to deliver effectively on our new Leisure Strategy, a key aim of which is to make leisure accessible to as many people as possible in the Borough.
“As a Councillor for Holywood and Clandeboye, the experience in my DEA has not been great in terms of service quality, and the existence of the outsourcing contract has stunted positive change.
“Alliance will continue to push for improvement for those in North Down, despite the misguided move to continue with a two-tier system.”