St Mary’s Community and Leisure Centre

We are looking for a charity or community-based organisation to take on St Mary’s Community and Leisure Centre on a long-term low-cost lease. We want them to maximise the use of the building and use it to support the St Mary’s community. The building will undergo repairs to make it safe and usable.

We are looking for an organisation with the vision and commitment required to enable greater use of the building to support diverse communities and a wide range of needs.

If you are interested in submitting an application or if you have any questions about the site or the application process, please submit these to stmarys@southampton.gov.uk by Wednesday 26 February to ensure a response ahead of the submission date.

Please address the areas outlined below in the assessment criteria in a business case and submit it to stmarys@southampton.gov.uk by Sunday 2 March.

All submissions will be assessed in a fair way, please include contact details for any follow up questions.

Criteria	Percentage	Questions
Community offering	15%	How will you work with the current regular bookers to improve the programme of activities? What additional community use are you proposing running from the centre?
Financial credibility, financial sustainability and longevity of the organisation	20%	Provide evidence of the successful implementation of a similar model at a comparable centre
Business plan – information on medium to long-term business planning and how they will achieve what they set out. Understanding the operating model	30%	How will you seek to grow visitors and usage over the first three years? What are your plans for maintenance and investment of the site(s) and facilities? What is your current existing business?
Plans to support the wider needs of the city	15%	Which other organisations and stakeholders are you working with in the city? Attendance and membership of working groups such as PPA and Energise Me
Community impact and access – how the plans and options impact on the community (including the schools programme) whilst ensuring that there is continued access to provision across the sites	20%	Describe how your proposed programme of activities will benefit the following community groups: Woman and girls Lower income groups Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities People with long term conditions or disabilities LGBTQ+ community Children, young people and families How will you work in partnership with other voluntary and community groups to maximise impact?

Business cases will be reviewed by an assessing panel which will have representatives from Leisure, Corporate Estates and Assets, Public Health, and partner representatives.

Useful documents

Document	Type	Size
St Mary’s Community and Leisure Centre red line drawing	pdf	99.9 KB

Contact us

Get in touch by email at stmarys@southampton.gov.uk.