Why did Cornwall Council ignore Kellogg's 'free swim' offer

There was a story in the Cornish Guardian last week about Cornwall Council's failure to take part in a Kellogg's free swims for kids offer.

The scheme was a national one which involved collecting tokens from cereal boxes in return for free swimming sessions. Cornwall Council said that it didn't sign up to take part because it was in the middle of a big reorganisation of a leisure services including the transfer of council leisure centres to the new leisure trust.

Whilst I support the new trust, it does seem unfortunate that it has taken so long to get this right. The new trust was meant to take control in April last year, but only did so on December 1st.

It's also a shame that the process of the transfer seems to have been so all consuming that a chance to take part in a nationally promoted scheme with a big name sponsor was missed.

I was a member of the council's leisure strategy review group which last year made a series of recommendations about how Cornwall Council could promote active lifestyles and more exercise. We didn't specifically consider the Kellogg's scheme, but we did recommend that consideration be given to a scheme to bring young people from poorer backgrounds into organised leisure activities.

In this case, it seems that the re-structuring and reorganisation mantra of the Council has actually cost the leisure service customers.

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