Richmond Council Plans to Hand Five Sports Centres to GLL

Richmond Council wants to hand the running of its last five directly managed sports centres to GLL, the charitable social enterprise that trades as Better and already operates Pools on the Park and Teddington Pools and Fitness Centre.

The proposal goes to the council’s Environment, Sustainability, Culture and Sports Committee on 15 September. The target handover date is 1 April 2027.

The five centres are:

• Active Hampton
• Hampton Sports and Fitness Centre
• Shene Sports and Fitness Centre, East Sheen
• Teddington Sports Centre
• Whitton Sports and Fitness Centre

None of them is in Richmond town itself. All five are council-owned and council-run, and between them they serve residents, schools and clubs across the western and southern half of the borough.

The number driving it is £397,000

The report to the committee, from the Executive Director of Resident Services, is blunt about why this is being considered. Running the five centres directly is forecast to cost the council a subsidy of approximately £397,000 in 2026/27.

The report says that figure would fall to about £110,000 by year five, but only if the business plan delivers its planned income growth. Removing the subsidy altogether is described as the “minimum objective” of handing the centres over, with the possibility of moving the service to break even or into surplus over the remaining contract term.

That is despite the centres themselves doing better than they were. Combined memberships across the five have risen by 10% since December 2025, and attendances are up 14% on 2024/25.

What the committee is actually being asked to decide

This is not a vote on the handover itself. The committee is asked to delegate authority to the Executive Director of Resident Services, in consultation with the committee chair and the Executive Director of Finance, to approve and implement the consolidation “where this is considered to represent best value for the Council”.

In other words, the decision that follows 15 September would be taken by officers, not by councillors in public, once the final business case and GLL’s cost estimate are in.

The report sets out three options. Continuing direct management “retains control but subsidy and operational risk remain”. Running a separate procurement exercise would market-test the service but “adds time, cost and fragmentation risk”. Folding the centres into the existing GLL contract is the one the report recommends exploring, using the change control mechanism already written into that contract.

98 staff posts would transfer

The report’s HR section is the part most likely to matter to the people who work in these buildings. If the handover goes ahead, staff would move to GLL under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, known as TUPE.

The current establishment across the five centres is:

• 98 positions on the proposed TUPE list for transfer
• 72 of those occupied positions hold staff in the shared services LGPS pension scheme
• 31 are permanent positions, one of which is vacant
• 50 are casual positions, of which 17 are vacant
• no fixed-term positions

Many of the contracted posts are part time, and the report notes that its salary information is quoted on a full-time-equivalent basis. Staff uncertainty is listed in the report’s own risk table, to be managed through “HR plan, formal consultation, trade union engagement and pensions advice”.

The case being made from Pools on the Park

GLL took over Pools on the Park and Teddington Pools and Fitness Centre on 1 October 2025, and the report leans heavily on the first nine months of that contract as evidence that the same thing would work at the other five.

Between October 2025 and June 2026:

• Membership at Pools on the Park rose from just over 5,000 to over 6,000
• Membership at Teddington rose from around 4,600 to just over 5,000
• Monthly visits at Pools on the Park rose from 21,168 to 48,106
• Monthly visits at Teddington rose from 20,819 to 31,350

The council attaches its own caution to those numbers, and it is worth repeating. The report says some of the growth “may reflect seasonal demand”, and that “direct comparison with previous Council-operated usage is limited by unavailable data”. October to June is a run into summer at a centre with an outdoor pool, so the visits figures are not a like-for-like measure of what changed when the operator did.

Two figures are harder to argue with. About 89.8% of Pools on the Park members and 92.8% of Teddington members are recorded as living in the borough. Women accounted for 59% of recorded visits between April and June 2026.

The report also credits the contract with a GP exercise referral scheme, Healthwise, which it says drew more than 50 referrals in its first two months and offers a two-year subsidised membership at £26.50 a month alongside a 12-week structured programme.

What it means for you

If you use Active Hampton, Hampton, Shene, Teddington Sports Centre or Whitton, nothing changes yet, and nothing is due to change before 1 April 2027 at the earliest.

The window that matters is September to November 2026, which the report sets aside for formal consultation and mobilisation planning. That is the point at which staff, trade unions, schools and trusts, clubs and community users are due to be engaged. The report says engagement should explain “safeguards for access and affordability, and how continuity of bookings and programme delivery will be protected”, so existing bookings and block bookings are the specific thing to ask about.

Cost is the other thing to watch. The report commits to protecting the council’s Fairer Access commitments and lists “resident concern on access or affordability” as a risk, but it does not publish any figure for what a membership would cost after a transfer. A post-implementation review is promised by September 2027.

The papers, including the financial tables and the risk register, are on the committee’s agenda page. The meeting is at 7pm on 15 September. If you are driving to a centre or to the meeting at the Civic Centre, our guide to parking in Richmond sets out what the council car parks charge, and the council’s share of what you pay is explained in our council tax bands page.

Sources

• Future Management Options for Richmond’s Council-Managed Sports Centres, report of the Executive Director of Resident Services to the Environment, Sustainability, Culture and Sports Committee, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 15 September 2026, for the five named centres, the recommendations, the £397,000 and £110,000 subsidy forecasts, the 10% membership and 14% attendance figures, the TUPE and pension breakdown, the options appraisal, the risk table and the indicative milestones.
• Appendix 1 to the same report, GLL Leisure Management Contract Update, for the 1 October 2025 start date, the membership and monthly visit figures for Pools on the Park and Teddington, the 89.8% and 92.8% residency figures, the 59% figure for women’s visits, the Healthwise referral scheme and the council’s own caveat about seasonal demand and unavailable comparison data.
• Environment, Sustainability, Culture and Sports Committee, 15 September 2026, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, for the agenda and meeting time.