For Sale - Birmingham's Leisure and Sports Facilities

The City Council has just announced a £200m privatisation process covering all the sports and leisure facilities in Birmingham. They have put a notice in the Official Journal of the EU seeking companies to come forward by 12 March 2012 if they would like to submit at an unspecified later date a tender to design, build, repair, refurbish, finance, operate or maintain any group of the council’s sports and leisure facilities. Staff working for these services may be transfered to the private companies winning the contracts, under TUPE.

The list of current services covered by the contracts include, but are not limited to :

— Alexander Stadium,

— Beeches Pool,

— Billesley Indoor Tennis Centre,

— Castle Vale Pool,

— Cocks Moor Wood Leisure Centre,

— Erdington Pool,

— Fox Hollies Leisure Centre,

— Handsworth Leisure Centre,

— Harborne Pool and Fitness Centre,

— Kingstanding Leisure Centre,

— Linden Road Leisure Centre,

— Moseley Road Pool,

— Nechells Sports Centre,

— Newtown Pool,

— Northfield Leisure Centre,

— Saltley Leisure Centre,

— Shard End Leisure Centre,

— Small Heath Leisure Centre,

— Shenley Court,

— Sparkhill Pool and Leisure Centre,

— Stechford Cascades,

— Stockland Green Leisure Centre,

— Tiverton Road,

— Wyndley Leisure Centre.

The first contract to be awarded through this framework will be the design, build, operate and maintain contract in relation to Sparkhill Pool and Fitness Centre.

So the battle is now on to save our sports and leisure services from the hands of the profiteers.

To fight this, we will be adopting our ‘organising’ approach to build up strong local workplace organisation in the Leisure services concerned. And with this we will establish close working relationships in a joint campaign with service users and the general public.

This battle will be won through our members (and the new members who really now should join the union) and our service users taking responsibility for their futures and their services. 

We need a steward or a workplace contact in every leisure and sports centre. We need lots more members to help those stewards and workplace contacts with the work that needs to be done - building up a map of all of our services and the workforce; contacting every person that works in a leisure or sports centre to encourage them to join the union and then to get active in the campaign to save our services; spreading the word to service users and the public.

We have committed, energetic and experienced branch and leisure services section officers who can start off the campaign. We have a nucleus of established stewards who can support and mentor new workplace representatives. We have the resources to develop the publicity needed by a city wide campaign.

We have a well developed community anti-cuts group, Birmingham Against The Cuts. They have set up many local BATC groups in different neighbourhoods around the city. In small ways this is paying off. The BATC groups have stopped the closure of Charles House (a respite unit for disabled children) and may soon force the re-opening of Merrishaw Day Nursery. Where we have had a strong local campaign, the council has backed off.

But every mass campaign starts with a lot of people all prepared to do small simple things to help. Put that together and you have a force to be reckoned with.

So what can you do ? 

• Join our union and our campaign. 
• Come to a members meeting on the privatisation threat. 
• Ask your colleagues to join in. 
• Make sure your workplace has a steward or a workplace contact.

We’ll be preparing publicity and petitions for the general public. We’ll be organising for our members to speak to, write to or to lobby the councillors and the MPs in the city. We will be fighting this privatisation. With your support, we can win this.

Graeme Horn

Joint Branch Secretary