New management

There has been concern for some time about whether the service is providing value for money, and, on a number of occasions in the past, there have been serious questions about its management.

In recent months, we have experienced closures or reduced hours at some of the city's swimming pools.

Last week, we were told that that public swimming at Blackbird Leys and Peers pools would be closed so that staff could be at Hinksey Pool to meet expected demand.

That turned out to be a cruel joke as anyone who turned up at Hinksey Pool will testify.

The open air pool itself was running at half capacity on the hottest weekend of the year because it could not muster enough staff.

Clearly, the problem was not one of staffing Hinksey Pool on a busy day - it was a problem of staffing any of the facilities.

Following these events, we had one of the starkest admissions of them all from a member of the previous ruling Liberal Democrat group who said that there had been a shortage of lifeguards partly due to a recruitment freeze installed because council officers did not know how many people were working in leisure services.

By any standards, that is a jaw-dropping insight into the management of services at the city council.

The situation has upset no less than the new leader of Oxford City Council, Mr Bob Price. Hardly surprising, as he was one of the many stuck in the queue at Hinksey Pool.

Last week, Mr Price said the new Labour administration would continue with an investigation set up by its predecessors into alternative ways of managing leisure services.

The events of the weekend suggest that a new way of managing Oxford's leisure services cannot come soon enough. Arms-length management works well in neighbouring authorities such as South Oxfordshire and the Vale. If anything, it ought to lead to a significant improvement in Oxford.