The Tonbridge and Malling Leisure Trust, known as tmactive, has confirmed that it is discussions with Kings Hill Parish Council about taking over the management of the Kings Hill Sports Park.

The parish has racked up huge losses at the centre, even before Covid, that it can't sustain in future.

The trust is an is an independent, charitable company that currently manages the leisure portfolio owned by the borough council.

Its objectives are to improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the communities it serves.

Chief executive Martin Guyton said: "Management of the Kings Hill Sports Park has complete synergy with the aims and objectives of the trust.

"It is a unique facility and I recognise the ambition of local residents and incumbent clubs to secure appropriate use of the sports park in the future and we would expect these protections to be built into any agreement with the parish council.

"I believe a genuine opportunity exists to re-invigorate and develop the Sports Park for the benefit of Kings Hill Football Club and the wider active community at Kings Hill."

Some Kings Hill residents had expressed concern that if management were handed away from the parish, local clubs and users would have less access as they would have to compete with renters from elsewhere, but Mr Guyton said: "I would not expect fundamental change to the existing operation but the trust can bring industry knowledge, resources and economies of scale to improve the financial and qualitative outcomes associated with the facility."

The parish council entered talks with the trust after engaging an independent consultant to look into the running of the sports park, following an internal investigation by its vice chairman, Cllr Chris Finlay,

The sports park had lost £150,000 in the year to March 2019, and a further £97,000 in the year to March 2020.

As a result, the parish council had depleted its reserves and was faced with having to hike its parish precept - the tax paid by residents.

Cllr Findlay, who joined the council in August 2019, said he had been "immediately appalled" at the state of its finances.

'Strategic management evolved into operational interference'

The sports park is owned by Liberty, the developers at Kings Hill, but has been leased to the parish council since April 2014 on a 125-year term at a peppercorn rent.

It is home to the Kings Hill Football Club which has 48 teams and 500 members.

The sports park had been expected to make losses at first, as the parish invested in its facilities, but there had been a plan to break even after five years. That had never happened.

Instead in the first four years alone it had lost £246,000.

Cllr Findlay blamed much of the problem on too much interference from individual councillors, with expenditure decisions being taken on an ad hoc basis, with no secure direction or plan.

He said: "Unfortunately what should have been strategic management by the Sports Park Committee evolved into operational interference, which, on many occasions, resulted in councillors overstepping their roles and taking short term decisions with customers and suppliers that altered the council policy, time and again, against the advice of staff, and which fundamentally undermined the role of staff and parish officers. "

The council cannot legally surrender the lease of the sports park and so is seeking to sub-let the responsibility to a body who might be able to run it more professionally.

tmactive already operates the Larkfield Leisure Centre, the Angel centre in Tonbridge, Tonbridge Swimming Pool, Poult Wood Golf Course, The Games Hut at Tonbridge Racecourse Sportsground.

Read more: All the latest news from Malling

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