City council says it plans to ‘build on’ Vivacity services as Peterborough leisure charity collapses

In a statemnt on today’s announcement by Vivacity that it plans to ‘hand back’ its contact to run leisure, libraries and heritage in Peterborough to the city council, the authority said it plans to continue providing leisure services.

The statement said: “It is vitally important to the City of Peterborough that it has a strong arts, leisure and cultural offer especially as the City comes out of lockdown and heads towards economic and social recovery.

Peterborough City Council has been working closely with the Vivacity Board of Trustees on proposals to help them to gradually reopen services as the pandemic lifts.

“But following a considerable period of discussion and support, Vivacity and PCC have reached a reluctant but mutual agreement that due to the long term effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Vivacity Trust in its current form, will not be in a position to deliver services for the council post lockdown. As a result the Trust gave notice today (June 18) that it is unable to deliver the current contract due to lockdown and COVID restrictions beginning a 90 day period to manage the transition.”

“We are sad that our 10 year relationship with Vivacity is to end, just one more casualty of the global pandemic,” said Peterborough Council Leader Cllr John Holdich. “But we are committed to continuing and even building upon the excellent services it has provided for the city, and are excited by the opportunity to possibly even change and develop what that offer might look like for a new, post COVID world.”

The council has already begun a review of the services to consider how they might be delivered in the future –either by the council alone, or in partnership with others.

With early indications from government about when some services may be able to open their doors again as general lockdown restrictions ease, the council is prioritising its work with Vivacity to make sure that people who use services likely to be able to open earliest experience little or no disruption.

More time will be taken to plan for the future of others, such as seasonal offerings like The Lido which are unlikely to open again this year. These plans will also seek to take account of how people’s lives have changed during the pandemic e.g the increased use of local open space, people valuing and using facilities which are more local to them in order to reduce non-essential travel.

The council is already working closely with the Arts Council and other partners to develop a new Culture Strategy for Peterborough, and our recently agreed Sports Strategy is already being delivered.

The council will also work closely with Vivacity as it discusses the future with its 500 strong workforce.

The majority of properties used by Vivacity to deliver services are already the property of the City Council

‘Devastated’ trust which runs Peterborough festivals, gyms and libraries ‘hands back’ contract to city council