FOI Request - Fit Life Organisational Structure and Direct Debits
Request 101003631989
In June the Press and Journal reported that members of Fit Life had been using their membership cards to access Moray leisure facilities without paying the Direct Debits for the cards.
The article said that the problem had been revealed by an audit of Keith Sports and Community Centre. It also stated that:
• 'Keith' were responsible for administration of all the Council's leisure centres.
• Gladstone software is used to process Fit Life bookings.
• The Direct Debits are administrated through the Council's financial management system.
Separately I note that there are two companies:
Moray Leisure Ltd
Moray Leisure (Trading) Ltd
whose officers give Morray Leisure Centre and Morray Council as correspondence addresses.
There is also a LeisureLink Partnership which has the web address
https://www.leisurelink.org/ but which does not appear to be registered with Companies House as either a company or a partnership, although there are organisations with very similar names.
I find the above confusing and I wish information to clarify the organisation of the Fit Life scheme, specifically;
1. When a member of the public joins 'Fit Life' with what organisation are they entering into a contract with.
2. As part of that contract what organisation within Moray has to supply the member of the public with access to leisure facilities.
3. Moray Council is responsible for collecting the Direct Debits is that correct.
4. What is the relationship between Moray Council, Moray Leisure Ltd, Moray Leisure (Trading) Ltd, Keith Sports and Community Centre, Fit Life and the LeisureLink Partnership. An organisation chart and an explanation would be helpful e.g. is the Council sub-contracted to a company to supply Direct Debit processing, or is a company sub-contracted to the Council to supply the members with leisure facilities.
5. How long has a problem with collecting the Fit Life Direct Debits existed.
6. When was the collection problem first detected.
7. Is the problem as a result of a fault in the Gladstone software.
8. Is the problem as a result of a fault in the Council's Direct Debit software.
Response 18-09-2024
1. If a member of the public joins Fit Life from a Moray Council leisure facility then they enter into a contract with Moray Council. If a member of the public joins Fit Life from Moray Leisure Centre then they enter into a contract with Moray Leisure Centre.
2. Moray Council and Moray Leisure Centre have an integrated Fit Life Membership Scheme and therefore regardless of what leisure facility you take your membership out with you can access all 8 Moray Council Leisure facilities as well as Moray Leisure Centre.
3. Moray Council are responsible for collecting direct debits of those members that have signed up via a Moray Council facility, Moray Leisure Centre are responsible for collecting direct debits of those members that have signed up via Moray Leisure Centre.
4. Keith Sports and Community Centre is one of the 8 Moray Council Leisure Facilities.
Moray Leisure (Trading) Ltd is a subsidiary of Moray Leisure Limited. Moray Leisure Limited is a private company limited by guarantee without share capital. Moray Leisure Limited have a lease and service level agreement with Moray Council to deliver a comprehensive range of leisure service in Elgin on behalf of the Council.
The Fit Life membership was created by Moray Council back in 2015, in 2018 Moray Leisure Centre agreed to become part of this membership scheme and therefore there was agreement to integrate this scheme across both organisations to enable as wide a benefit to the people of Moray through this scheme.
The Leisure Link partnership was started back in 2019 by Highlife Highland and continues to be managed by this leisure trust. It allows members of fitness schemes across a number of local authorities in Scotland to access gym, public swimming activities at facilities at no extra cost. The scheme is primarily for leisure members to use their card whilst away on business or on holiday - it is not for regular use. No finance exchanges hands between Local Authorities involved in this scheme, it is purely an additional incentive for having a leisure membership. Highlife Highland administers how this scheme works as it was created by this trust.
5. We were not aware of the problem until May 2024.
6. Detected in May 2024.
7. No fault of the Gladstone system software.
8. No fault of the Council's direct debit software. The process for dealing with Fit Life memberships up until now has involved two separate systems and it was following a reconciliation exercise of the two systems that the problem was identified. We are imminently away to start dealing with this process through a single system which will remove this problem from occurring in the future.