Clarification: Draft budget and leisure centres

16 January 2024

Claims that leisure centres in Powys are to get a £1.1m cut in support from the council are inaccurate.

In December 2022, Freedom Leisure were reporting significant increases to utility costs, which were predicted to continue for a period of time as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Powys County Council agreed to support Freedom Leisure with these unprecedented additional costs into the 2023/24 financial year with additional £1.1m.

However, with reduced and stabilising energy prices and Freedom Leisure fixing their energy price contract, Freedom Leisure confirmed that they did not require the additional funding.

As the additional funding was not needed by Freedom Leisure, this has been put forward as a budget saving.