Community

Council announces plans to close Key Theatre and leisure facilities

A proposal to close the city’s Key Theatre and temporarily suspend public access to Werrington Leisure Centre at Ken Stimpson Community School has been announced as part of plans to manage the council’s severe financial situation.

However, the council’s Deputy Leader Councillor Steve Allen has assured residents that every effort will be made to get the theatre and leisure facilities back up and running as quickly as possible.

Two national reports looking at the council’s financial situation published in November recognised the seriousness of the challenge and the need to take strong and decisive action. These reports recommended that the council looks at every area of service to make the savings needed. As a result, the Leader of the Council, Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald said that everything was on the table to be able to meet the challenge.

Already the council has approved £9.5million of savings in the next financial year with a second set of proposals due to be published in January which will look to close the £26million budget gap altogether. In addition, it has just published an Improvement Plan which sets out steps the council will take to reach a stable financial position while still delivering quality vital services for residents.

There is also a need to deliver savings in the current financial year so that the council can reduce the gap for next year and avoid using its precious reserves. As a result, it is proposed that the Key Theatre will close on Monday 17 January. People who have tickets for performances after this date will be issued a refund. Public access to Werrington Leisure Centre will cease from 1 January. Access to outdoor sports pitches will remain.

These decisions are expected to save the council £150,000 in the first six months of 2022 alone.
Consultation will now begin with staff affected at the Key Theatre. If the proposal proceeds, every effort will be made to redeploy staff and reduce the number of redundancies. Staff at the leisure centre will be redeployed elsewhere.

Deputy Leader of Peterborough City Council, Councillor Steve Allen, said:

“This is not the kind of announcement that I or any of my colleagues want to be making, but it is essential that we make proposals such as this if we are to get the council’s finances on a more stable footing. We have said for some time that we face some difficult decisions on our road to achieving financial sustainability, however we will continue to look for ways to reopen these facilities as soon as possible. We are obtaining a commercial value for sale of the Key Theatre and are also in preliminary discussions with a number of interested parties.
“In the current financial year, both these facilities are forecast to make a significant loss and we cannot afford to let that continue. Ticket sales at the Key Theatre are significantly below forecast overall and income this year has been hampered by the theatre having to close for periods and to operate in a Covid-safe way at other times.
“We cannot operate services that generate a financial deficit and expect our communities to accept it. That is money we could be using to provide services for those in real need and to get us to a point where we can meet service demand with the money we have available each year.
“Our city has a bright future – there are so many examples of this, for example at Fletton Quays and the new university. We want to see the city continue to prosper and grow, but first we must resolve our financial situation.”

In the current financial year the Key Theatre is forecast to make a loss in the region of £300,000. The leisure facilities are forecast to make a net loss for 2021/22 of £190,000, increasing to £205,000 for 2022/23. They will be closed until the start of the new school year in September 2022.
The leisure facilities are part of the school campus; school use of the facilities will continue unaffected.
In addition, the council has placed a stop on spending on anything other than essential statutory services with immediate effect. Again, this is to reduce the budget deficit for 2022/23 and to retain as much of the council’s reserves as possible.

A Cabinet Member Decision Notice has been published detailing the planned temporary closures. This can be viewed here.

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