Gym buddies

NEW facility: Oldhamers could use their gym membership at the £10.3m Heywood Sports Village, which boasts two swimming pools, a sports hall, a fitness suite, exercise and dance studios and synthetic pitches

Oldham-Rochdale leisure link-up is good for your health... and pocket
GYM users could soon see keep-fit turn into cheap-fit if joint working plans between Oldham and Rochdale work out.

Oldham Community Leisure (OCL), which runs sports centres across the borough, announced proposals to link up with Link4Life, which heads leisure and cultural services in Rochdale.

And the good news for Oldhamers is it could see sports fans bag cheaper prices and more facilities.

Stuart Lockwood, incoming chief executive for OCL, said: “If we are procuring services as two organisations, it could bring the unit price down and make OCL less reliant on Oldham Council grants.

“We are also aiming to make our top gym memberships available in both boroughs, which adds value and people feel they are getting more for their pound.

“If we can bring down costs, whether printing or whatever, that could be reflected in the prices we charge.

“As we are not-for-profit, if we make savings, there’s more money going into improving facilities or charging less.”

Both organisations plan to form a strategic alliance and work together in key areas to cut costs, make savings and work better. Those areas include marketing, reciprocal gym memberships, health improvement, CRB checks and procurement of central service contracts, such as cash collection.

A recent OCL board report stated the plans were not a full merger. OCL already shares Link4Life’s senior financial officer who identifies where savings can be made, such as where one organisation is paying less than the other for goods and services.

The plans would give both organisations more strength in the tender process and allow for more cost-effective working. The move also mirrors joint working initiatives currently running between Oldham and Rochdale councils.

OCL is funded through an Oldham Council grant, cash from other funding pots, such as Sport England and the NHS, and money from people using the facilities.

Mr Lockwood said there were no potential job cuts planned from the joint working as there were current vacancies at OCL following its recent internal restructure.

He will be visiting Rochdale next week to look into further areas for joint-working.

Mr Lockwood said: “We are in the early stages of the process so its a bit of a blank canvas.”



Oldham Council has just completed a leisure services review, including public consultation, of facilities across the borough. Under the plans, OCL’s contract would end and a new deal for the management of the “leisure estate” would come in at the start of 2013.