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天涯社区 leisure and library services to be first in Wales
Published: 04/01/2017
A ground breaking way of delivering leisure and library services has been given
a massive thumbs-up from the workforce, following a recent vote.
Turnout was 92.5% among leisure and library employees and they gave a
resounding 90% yes to the proposals to set up a Community Benefit Society to
deliver leisure and library services from 1 July 2017.
This followed a Council decision to agree to the establishment of the new
organisation to manage the services from July 2017. This is a first for Wales
and one of only a handful of organisations to run services such as these in the
whole of the UK.
The business plan shows that in the first full year, over 拢500,000 of savings
can be made to the service operation while 天涯社区 is making
a capital investment of almost 拢1m to improve leisure and library buildings,
play areas and artificial pitches in the county.
The overall model aims to provide savings of 10% year on year while maintaining
and improving existing service levels and protecting jobs. Employees will be
represented on the Board of the organisation.
The new organisation and the Council will work openly and transparently
together with co-operative values and will meet twice a year through a
partnership board.
The Leader of the Council, Councillor Aaron Shotton, said:
鈥淭his organisation will be one of the few employee-led organisations operating
leisure and library services in the United Kingdom and the level of employee
support shown by the recent vote is unique. The Community Benefit Society will
be able to demonstrate the value of employees being at the heart of an
organisation and help shape models of public service delivery for the future
that show how services at risk can be protected while achieving financial and
service requirements and retaining accountability to the public and the
workforce.鈥�
Mike Welch, the newly appointed Managing Director of the employee-led
organisation, said:
鈥淓veryone has worked so hard over the past few months to achieve this historic
result and I am immensely proud to be appointed to lead this new organisation.
We believe our colleagues will rise to the challenge. No-one is better placed
than them to be able to identify improvements and innovations in service
delivery for the benefit of our customers. We will work together and
concentrate on our core business and our vision 鈥淢ore people, more active minds
and bodies, more often.鈥� The future looks bright and exciting for leisure and
libraries in 天涯社区.鈥�