The move to outsource management of The Score Centre for at least ten years was put down to the need to avoid ‘financial and operational risks’, reports Josh Mellor, Local Democracy Reporter

The Score Centre on Oliver Road, Leyton, Image: Taylor Wimpey

The management of a Leyton sports centre will be outsourced by Waltham Forest Council when it is redeveloped next year.

The Score Centre, a large sports hall in Oliver Road, will be replaced by new facilities in the neighbouring Coronation Square development in 2024.

Plans for the new 4,600sqm indoor centre – which will sit below part of the 750-home development – will include a large new sports hall with room to seat 500 spectators.

Although the council’s sport and leisure team currently manages the centre, it has decided to outsource the management of the new centre for at least ten years to avoid “financial and operational risks”.

In a cabinet report approved last week, the council’s director of neighbourhoods Jarlath Griffin said there would be several disadvantages to the council managing the centre itself.

These include needing to pay for new IT systems and “limited resources” to manage it.

He concluded that although the council would have “greater influence” over the programming and pricing of activities at the centre, an external provider would help to get the “best value” for residents.

In contrast, he set out several advantages of appointing an external manager such as “reduced risk to the council”, having a pool of staff and lower overheads.

An illustration of an aerial view of the Coronation Square development. Image: Taylor Wimpey

However, disadvantages include needing to set a strict contract, having less control over programming and pricing, and the need to have clear “interfaces between partners”.

Griffin’s report concluded: “A commercial (external) provider will have the ability and economies of scale to absorb a proportion of the associated expenditure and generate a higher level of income.”

According to the report the two “core” users of the Score Centre – The Nappy Gang, an early years centre, and Leyton Orient Trust – will be able to secure space in the new centre.

Outdoor sports pitches for football, hockey, beach volleyball and have already been replaced at Feel Good Too – previously known as Ive Farm – in Jubilee Park.

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