USE of the Redlands Leisure and Community Park at Weymouth has exceeded expectations since Active Dorset took over its management in November 2022.

A report says the centre has had its problems, including a leaking roof and some planned activities being delayed – but overall it has been a great success.

The recently opened community café and soft play area are now providing an additional source of income with Active Dorset having already halved the operating deficit of around £200,000 a year, from the time when Weymouth College managed the centre, and are now hoping to have an operating surplus from 2025/26.

Said a report to Dorset councillors looking at the centre’s progress: “Active Dorset should be congratulated for creating an environment where local people and users now want to be more engaged with the site, and this is evident with the expanding number of volunteers playing an active role in the day-to-day operations.”

The site now has more than 20 volunteers, many of whom have been trained to operate the café, which has been awarded a 5-star food hygiene rating.

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Among the physical improvements to the building have been roofing repairs, an upgrade to the electrical systems and a refurbished wooden floor in one of the sports halls.

The centre continues to explore ways to drive down costs with Investigations underway into reducing the 40 shower units fed by gas boilers with a proposal for a smaller number with electric to heat the water,  as being more cost-effective.

Overall user numbers are up year on year, with Pickleball seen as a “standout success” with the Jurassic Coasters club and others running sessions  on almost every day of the week.

The change to card-only transactions is reported to have been entirely successful with those using the building happily adopting the new ‘do it yourself’ culture where users, rather than staff, get out and put equipment away.

The report says that the refurbishment of the existing 3G pitch and the introduction of a second 3G pitch, together with a new cricket wicket, are likely to attract grant funding and if the bids are successful construction could start in January 2025 with the pitches in use in March in the same year.

The report says that alongside the positive news there has been some unexpected additional costs including needing to spend more time and money on servicing and maintenance.