Fusion Facts

Last week Mayor Dave Hodgson signed a decision to enable Robinson Pools and Fitness to reopen.

To date, the Council has agreed to pay Fusion £318,100 from April to September 2020, and have committed to pay them £45,500 per month from October until the end March 2021. This funding has been to maintain the sites throughout lockdown, and enable Fusion to re-open Mowsbury Golf Course, the Athletics Stadium for local clubs to use, and most recently Robinson Pools & Fitness.

Leisure operators across the country have had the majority of their income disappear overnight and even after reopening income will be at a much reduced level. There is no way of avoiding additional support from either national or local taxpayers during the pandemic to enable facilities to be maintained and opened.

Due to the serious impact of Coronavirus on the leisure sector and the lack of Government support for leisure facilities to re-open, the Council has had to follow the example of other local authorities and provide extra funding to Fusion to support them in re-opening.

In normal times, the Council do not give Fusion money to run our leisure services; they pay the Council a management fee, in addition to investing £3million in our local facilities over the course of their contract. At this time, the Council have deferred this management fee and a loan repayment for physical works on the buildings.

The Council are working with Fusion Lifestyle to ensure that they re-open further leisure centres for Bedford Borough residents as soon as possible, but we know that people will appreciate that this may come with an extra cost. The Council are calling on the Government to help us to meet that cost, with Council finances already under huge pressure.

Mayor Dave Hodgson has praised the Council's Leisure Portfolio Holder Councillor Doug McMurdo for all his hard work and his discussions with Fusion about remobilising services.