Debt-troubled council comes under attack during struggle to manage costly leisure centre

Elmton-with-Creswell Council (ECPC) was left in financial dire straits, according to a Locum report, largely due to its running of the Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre which was identified as a key element in the council’s financial plight according to a National Association of Local Councils’ (NALC) independent review.

But eight months after the review ECPC has now been accused of failing to implement a new cost-saving and successful way for the centre to be run as it faces huge loans and despite promises of greater transparency it has allegedly continued to show a reluctance to share its financial position.

Shaun Wass, who owns properties in Creswell, said: “The loans have been secured against the council tax precept which I find appalling and they are making no attempt to eradicate the problem, sort it out, put it up for sale or come up with a solution and they have done nothing that the NALC report said.”

ECPC’s financial monitoring was deemed to have been ‘inadequate’ by the NALC review in March and at that time it was liable for a £2m loan taken out from the Government Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) for construction of the £3m centre, alongside a £533,000 loan from Bolsover Council.

The report stated the loss on the running costs of the centre, on Colliery Road, at that time was estimated to be £10,400 per week.

ECPC had reportedly been running the centre at a loss after it agreed in October, 2020, to borrow £2m from the PWLB to complete the project and Bolsover Council’s former company Dragonfly had to finish the development after the original contractors fell into administration.

The centre opened in April, 2023, during a hugely difficult economic crisis following the Covid-19 pandemic which led to ECPC increasing its council tax precept for the 2024-25 financial year by a massive 93.2 per cent to help with the centre’s running costs and bills before imposing a huge 65.58 per cent council tax hike in 2025-26, it said to meet estimated annual operation costs of over £900,000.

Its precept increased from £280,816 in 2023-24 to £555,820 in 2024-25, and then to £919,471 in 2025-26, according to the review report.

The report stated ECPC had operated adequately before the centre opened but the centre transformed the situation and increased the level of expenditure by some 236 per cent.

Both ECPC and Bolsover Council subsequently stated they were considering the future of the centre on whether a new management structure would be implemented, or whether the building would be relinquished or have its operations transferred to another party.

However, despite ECPC chair Amanda Davis stating that ‘transparency is at the heart of everything we do’, Mr Wass claims he has repeatedly been refused information on its finances.

He has also claimed ECPC has changed its standing orders so anyone who does not live in the village cannot ask a question of them.

He said: “They stopped a gentleman asking questions at the last meeting even though he had written in with them.

"I wrote to them regularly and never got a response.

"Communication is appalling and the attitude of the council - and specifically the chair – is appalling.”

Mr Wass claims ECPC is losing an estimated £,8,500 a week, that the first and second quarters of the financial year showed estimated losses of over £140,000 alongside £90,000 of loans being paid back towards the 49-year PWLB loan and towards the 10-year Bolsover Council loan.

A previous budget report stated there is significant scope to increase income generated from the well-used Creswell Events Centre after the operational costs indicate a potential operating loss.

It also pointed out the Markland Campus changing facility for footballers, the Hub Youth Centre, on Colliery Road, and a multi-use games centre used by only Creswell Cricket Club all represent assets rented from the Welbeck Estate company that, at the time of the NALC review, were not being utilised to their fullest extent.

Mr Wass said: “Before they even get started on anything they have got half-a-million pounds on the books to pay out before they look at anything else.

"It is not getting any better.

"They have been asked to resign and they have been asked to do something and I have asked are they happy with their figures and I have said ‘what are you going to do?’

"And this has been going on for over 12 months.

“When it’s losing that sort of money over a three-year period it will cost the parish £1.5m to run the facility with the loans and losses and that is what the ratepayer has to pay out.”

“I’m a businessman and if I ran a business like that I would get a knock at the door from the bank and they would say ‘I am closing the business’.”

He added that no-one at ECPC appears to have had any training and he described the situation as an ‘absolute disaster’.

Since March, ECPC has agreed to implement a number of NALC’s recommendations including appointing a new clerk, finance officer, and events centre manager, and setting up new HR ad finance committees.

And it has agreed that the Derbyshire Association of Local Councils will undertake the council’s audit, and that a charitable trust previously set up to run the centre be dissolved.

However, there does not appear to have been much movement to establish a firm, preferred option for the building’s future.

The NALC report originally recommended ECPC compiled an action plan and met with Bolsover Council to establish a preferred option for the building’s future while reviewing other properties that ECPC operates.

ECPC followed a NALC report recommendation that it should sign up to the national Civility and Respect Pledge and approved proposals including plans to generate additional income from the centre.

In May, Bolsover Council agreed to continue with the day-to-day operational running of the centre and enter into a service level agreement (SLA) with ECPC, which would meet full costs.

Bolsover Council also agreed to continue to employ staff working at the centre.

But according to Mr Wass, this business plan has failed, is losing tens of thousands of pounds and there is no ‘exit strategy’.

The NALC report stated that the key issue for ECPC in March was whether to keep the centre open within an increased council tax precept level or not

At that time ECPC had bought themselves 12 months until the next budget in 2026 to come to a considered view about what they want to do with the centre and their other assets.

ECPC stated at that time that it was taking ‘immediate and decisive action’ to address financial matters and ‘restore the council’s financial health’.

However, Mr Wass feels it is still operating at a huge loss at the ratepayers’ expense and it has not fulfilled promises to share its financial position or find a new cost-saving and successful way for the centre to be run.

ECPC stated in January that it recognises the importance of ensuring public confidence in its operations and that there were ongoing efforts to uphold its commitment to accountability, transparency and good governance.

It also stated that it was developing an action plan to focus on strengthening financial controls.

The original £3m project for the leisure centre was funded through Bolsover Council, ECPC, Derbyshire Council, Viridor, and the Big Local and Bolsover Partnership.

Parish councillor Duncan McGregor has said he believes it was the Covid-19 pandemic that threw ECPC and its leisure centre scheme into a crippling financial crisis.

ECPC has been contacted for comment.

Bolsover Council, despite its SLA agreement, stated that it felt it was not appropriate to comment because the centre is ‘run by ECPC’.