- Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council

In recognition of the new South Lake Leisure Centre becoming a landmark leisure facility in Northern Ireland, it was agreed that leisure services would have to undergo a transformation in order to build the capacity required to deliver a dynamic and innovative range of leisure opportunities and a modern offering reflective of a top class £35m facility.

To help shape the transformation, council is working closely with a team of experienced specialists who have extensive knowledge of operating large-scale leisure centres and helping leisure services teams to transform from within.

The transformation team would like to engage with indoor leisure staff to gather views and ideas on how best to develop the new leisure centre and transform indoor leisure for the better.

This page will ensure you are kept up to date on key information regarding the build progress, leisure updates, staff engagement sessions and answer any questions raised.

If you have any feedback, questions or ideas please don’t hesitate to contact Joanne Grattan at or call ex: 1781

Leisure Matters - internal newsletter

Leisure Matters – Issue 5

Leisure Matters – Issue 4

Leisure Matters – Issue 3

Leisure Matters – Issue 1

Artist impressions

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A view of the build

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Fly through videos of the build

Leisure Transformation Champions

Role of Leisure Transformation Champions -October 2019

Main Purpose of Role
The main purpose of the Leisure Transformation Champions is to provide, in addition to other communication routes and resources, two way communications between the staff at your site and the Central Transformation Project Team (CTPT). Leisure Transformation Champions should ensure that questions and queries from staff members are presented to the CTPT for answer and that staff at your site receive an answer, and that the answers are shared among all staff at your site, and other champions, as best as possible. Additionally, Champions will provide the “one point of contact” at each site (in addition to the Centre Supervisor(s)) for the CTPT and the transformation process.

Champions will be expected to:

Attend all/most key planned communication/staff engagement meetings
Operate the various communication mechanisms on behalf of staff at your site- email, face to face, what’s app groups, texting, local staff notice boards etc.
Share information to and from all members of staff at your site.
Share information to and from CTPT
Share information to and from other Champions
Respect any confidential or sensitive information and manage appropriately

Site Supervisors will be expected to:

Allow Champions the appropriate amount of time/resources to carry out their communications responsibilities effectively

Leisure Transformation Champions – Oct 2019

Site name	Champions	Email Address ( if available)
Craigavon Leisure Centre	Christine Scott
Orchard Leisure Centre	Karen Cunningham
Tandragee Recreation Centre	Paul Holmes David Crawford
Cascades Leisure Centre	Paul McKenna Kieran Headley Cherie Rutherford
Waves Leisure Centre	Lisa Hilland Jacquie Collins
Dromore Community Centre	Liz Doak
Banbridge Leisure Centre	Alison Boal
Gilford Community Centre	Liz Doak
Rathfriland Community Centre	Wendy McKibbin
Keady Recreation Area	Adam Cooper
Richhill Recreation Area	Nicky Crowe
Watersports Centre	Tony Hamill Stephanie Toman

Staff engagement

As part of the ongoing leisure transformation programme, a series of staff engagement workshops have been organised since June 2018 allowing staff, trade unions and management to consider what excellent customer service looks like moving forward in the Health and Recreation department.

Over 150 staff and trade union representatives have attended already, contributing to the design of a new and improved service offering throughout the council’s leisure estate. The next engagement sessions are outlined in the link below:

Staff Engagement Session November 2019 Q&A

Staff Engagement dates 2019 and 2020 (updated 25th Oct 2019)

Questions asked at Site Visits

Staff Engagement Presentation – October 2019

Staff Engagement Event – Dec 2019

Staff engagement December 2019 Q&A’s

Staff Engagement Event – Jan 2020

Staff Engagement January

Staff Engagement Feb 2020

Internal Staff Surveys

The transformation team along with Officers are developing internal survey to consult in order with our staff to help us understand:

Gauge how much our indoor leisure staff know about the new SLLC
Help understand staff views on the impact that SLLC will have on them personally
Gauge the impact that SLLC will have on our customers/users.

It was agreed that we would ensure that we capture staff views at the start of the project and then regularly over the following months.

The first survey carried out was in June 2019 and one is now open during November 2019; we would encourage as many staff as possible to get involved and complete the survey.

** NOTE: These surveys are done on an anonymous basis – we do not ask for names or other identifying information. **

Results from staff survey carried out in June 2019

June Suvey 2019 – response received for questions 7 & 8

The latest staff survey is now live and is open until the 20^th December 2019: https://armaghbanbridgecraigavon.citizenspace.com/health-and-recreation/6952f1f0/consult_view

Question 7 internal survey november 2019

Question 8 internal survey november 2019

Results from internal staff survey carried out november 2019