Chesterfield council is introducing new and increased fees at venues and sports centres

The local authority agreed to increase fees and charges at its community facilities and sports centres during a cabinet meeting on February 5 after venues have suffered thousands of pounds of losses and as part of plans to balance a multi-million pound funding gap for the 2024-25 financial year.

Cllr Kate Sarvent, Cabinet member for Town Centres and Visitor Economy, said: “In light of the serious financial challenges facing us and Local Government as a whole regrettably we cannot sustain the current level of discretionary services.”

The council has been reviewing the fees and charges, income and losses at a number of its Chesterfield-based venues including Hasland Village Hall, at Eastwood Park, the Assembly Rooms, at the town centre Market Hall, and Queen’s Park Sports Centre, as well as its Staveley-based Healthy Living Centre.

And it has now approved changes and hire charges for Hasland Village Hall and The Assembly Rooms and it has agreed to introduce fees and charges for the hiring of its Town Hall committee rooms and chamber, on Rose Hill, in Chesterfield, by external parties which will all be implemented from April 1.

Hasland Hall will operate Community Charges for non-profit-making organisations and for social gatherings and Commercial Charges for profit-making events and organisations with discounts for regular-users for either its main hall or its meeting room.

Hire costs at Hasland Hall will range from between £33 to £49 per hour before any discounts and depending on whether the booking is a community or commercial-related charge with kitchen hire at £20.

The current wedding-package charge for 2023-24 of £1,155 will increase by 43per cent to £1,656, and the Party-Package charge for 2023-24 of £565 will increase by 45per cent to £821.

Even though the council has also agreed to stop letting The Assembly Rooms to external parties with a view to letting space on a commercial basis in the future, this is not expected to be introduced until June 30 and in the meantime it has agreed to increase any room hire charges from April 1 until June 30.

The hire costs for the Assembly Rooms’ Main Hall or for one of its two rooms will range from £8 per hour to £83 per hour depending on the location, overall length of the booking and the time of week with charges increasing by between five and 15 per cent by comparison with the 2023-24 financial year.

Kitchen hire for The Assembly Rooms Main Hall will also increase by six per cent for community charge hire to £9 per hour and for commercial charge hire it will increase by ten per cent to £16 per hour.

New Assembly Room Conference and Meeting Packages will increase by between eight and ten per cent depending on community or commercial charges, or half or full day bookings.

Hasland Hall had been operating with a deficit of approximately £32,000 in 2022-23 and the forecast deficit for the current financial year has been etimated at about £24,000, according to the council.

In 2022-23 The Assembly Rooms had been operating with a deficit of approximately £54,000, according to the council, and the forecast deficit for the current financial year has been estimated as £55,000.

The new council Town Hall Committee Room commercial charge hire arrangements will range from £10 to £25 per hour depending upon which committee room is booked, with full-day bookings ranging from £60 to £150 also depending on which room is booked.

Community charge hire arrangements for the committee rooms will range from £9 to £21 per hour depending upon which committee room is booked, with full-day bookings ranging from £51 to £128 also depending on which room is booked.

The cabinet also approved new fitness membership fees and charges to be introduced from April 1 for the 2024-25 financial year at Queen’s Park Sports Centre, on Boythorpe Road, Chesterfield, and at the Healthy Living Centre, on Barlow Road, Staveley, for new members with increases ranging up to around 18per cent for different activities, memberships, classes, lessons, courses, age ranges, and for studio, room, court and pitch hire.

Some charges will see an increase of up to 21.1per cent for holiday activities and 33.3per cent for low-priced equipment hire.

Even though the council has agreed that the new changes are to be introduced for new customers from April 1 it has also stated that it will ‘hold the current charges for existing members’.

However, racket sports inclusion and access is to be removed from the Fitness Membership package and will be replaced with an annual racket sports only membership with a flat 50per cent fee for the use of a court. It is hoped this new racket sports system will create about £20,000 of new income.

Cllr Jonathan Davies, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said during a time of extreme financial pressures on the council budget the authority needs to strike a balance between being able to maintain high quality facilities and equipment while supporting the community’s health and wellbeing.

The council, like many other struggling authorities, has blamed the sustained period of austerity since 2010, the ongoing risks and uncertainties over future Government funding, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a sustained period of exceptionally high inflation, rising costs and demands on its financial position.

Opposition Liberal Democrat Councillor, Paul Holmes, said: “The new cuts and fee increases were just the latest bad news following the scrapping of residents free town centre parking and increasing car parking charges by 21per cent over just five months.”