Golf course was ‘only leisure facility to grow last year’

An organisation that runs a wide range of cultural, countryside and sports services in East Ayrshire has revealed its golf course was the only non-online facility that performed well in the last financial year.

East Ayrshire Leisure would have hoped to see 2.6 million people use its services in the 2020/21 year, but just 278,970 did – just over ten percent of the number of visits to its facilities it had targeted, thanks to the pandemic.

More than three-quarters of its staff were also placed on furlough.

The financial year includes nearly four months in spring and summer 2020 when all East Ayrshire Leisure facilities were closed, and a similar amount of time from December 2020 to March 2021 when all but two were closed again.

Image from Facebook

A report to East Ayrshire Council states: “2020/21 was a difficult year for all sectors in our community. The ongoing closures and restrictions brought about by Covid-19 led to a decrease in performance statistics of 89 percent compared to the targets that were set for the year.

“Before the pandemic hit, we had set ourselves a target of 2,593,087 visits to our venues and our activities. The actual figure for 2020/21 was 278,970.

“Despite this significant reduction, the team have excelled and demonstrated innovation, commitment and diligence to ensure that East Ayrshire Leisure Trust is a resilient organisation at the heart of the community.”

However, while its facilities including swimming pools, museums and theatres performed badly, Annanhill Golf Course posted a huge 59 percent improvement on the year before.

This was the only non-online East Ayrshire Leisure facility to not suffer – its eBook service also saw significant growth in the last year.