North Yorkshire Council
Housing & Leisure Overview and Scrutiny
11 June 2025
Culture and Leisure Performance Report
Report of the Corporate Director – Community Development
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1.0 |
PURPOSE OF REPORT
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1.1
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To provide an overview of current performance trends for Culture and Leisure Services and to seek feedback from Members on the range of indicators and any additional measures they would like to receive. |
2.0 ISSUES AND ASSESSMENT
2.1 A summary of key performance indicators is attached as Appendix one. This report sets out key trends and issues relating to the performance of the Culture and Leisure services. Library performance is presented as an annual report to Members of this Committee and so library performance is not included within this report.
2.2 Over the last year significant work has been undertaken by all services to develop a meaningful set of indicators and to establish stable and consistent reporting measures. Measures are now embedded within the Culture and Venues & Attractions teams and indicators within this part of the service reflect a consistent methodology.
2.3 Within Active North Yorkshire (Leisure services) there has been considerable change during the last year, with services within the former Harrogate, Selby and Richmondshire areas coming in house. This has been a significant transfer programme in a relatively short period and there is considerable ongoing convergence work required to fully integrate into a single service. This includes performance data, which is not collected in a uniform and consistent way and currently there is no integrated leisure management system which means data has to be extracted from a number of systems and collated manually. Whilst considerable work has been undertaken to develop a set a indicators which can be measured consistently there is further work to do.
2.4 In particular, during the coming year a more meaningful set of indicators will be developed for Active North Yorkshire, which reflect the required outcomes for the service, including the contribution to improving health and wellbeing, social value and financial impact.
2.5 Key highlights and issues for the last year are summarised below:
· The Cultural Service continues to receive national recognition for its work and in Q4 Skipton Town Hall was shortlisted for the Outstanding Music Education Resource prize in conjunction with key partners Opera North, AMP and Orchestra’s Live. The project reached 9,380 children across 200 schools and was a huge success in introducing classical music to early years and primary school children.
· Engagement in the service also increased over the year with an overall increase in visitor numbers and engagement with outreach activity. Levels of satisfaction remain high at over 90% however, the impact of the pump room closure for 12 weeks (November – January) and the ongoing issues with the boiler and temperature control have affected both visitor numbers and the customer experience.
· The service has increased its social media reach and has seen an increase in newsletter subscribers.
· Customer feedback highlights the value and impact of the events. Feedback comments in relation to ‘Now Then!’, suggested that the event was ‘fantastic’, thought-provoking' and ‘...showed the varied layers of Abbey life.. I sat and watched it twice’. The Creative Business event included comments such as ‘Great event, would like more please’, ‘Thank you for putting these events on... genuinely feels like there is a buzz of excitement about what can and will be possible, not just for the creative industries and wider community in Malton and Norton, but also Ryedale and wider North Yorkshire’.
· Scarborough Fair has been growing in impact, showing significant increases in footfall during festival periods and receiving positive feedback from audiences and cultural participants. Economic impact for the 6 festivals run during 2023 and 2024 was estimated at over £10million.
Venues and Attractions
· The Scarborough Spa had a successful year with overall higher attendances. In Q4 musical acts Scouting for Girls, Jo Willey and Skindred all attracted over 1,000 guests whilst comedian John Bishop attracted over 2,500 guests over two performances. Q3 also saw the annual pantomime attract significantly higher attendances than previously, increasing overall attendances in December from 13,915 to 17,001 compared to the previous year.
· The Open Air Theatre had a record breaking year increasing the number of tickets sold to the highest level since the venue opened. The economic impact assessment also showed an increasing economic impact for the local area of £8.5million compared to the previous year.
· Whitby Pavillion continues to provide an important local venue, but does struggle in terms of attendance and the range of events. This is a challenging position to address and will be a focus for the coming year.
Active North Yorkshire
· Significant progress has been made by the service during the last year, with the successful transfer of services from IHL (Selby and Tadcaster), Brimhams Active (Harrogate) and Richmondshire into Active North Yorkshire. Transfers were achieved with minimal customer impact and some useful learning to inform the remaining transfers of the sites in Scarborough and Ryedale in 2027.
· Positively income remains strong, with income levels overachieving against budget for the year and membership levels and swimming lessons showing small increases compared to the previous year.
· The Healthy You (weight management service) successfully transferred into Active North Yorkshire in January and is now delivered in house as a single service. The programme is delivering well against targets. Good progress continues to be made in developing the health and well being and the outreach offer and new indicators will be developed in the coming year to better reflect these important areas of work.
Jo Ireland
Assistant Director: Culture, leisure, Archives and Libraries
Will Boardman
Head of Strategy and Performance
30 May 2025
Appendix A – Performance Summary 2024/25