Somerset Council has confirmed that no central government funding from the Glastonbury town deal was paid directly to Fusion Lifestyle before the charity entered administration.
Fusion Lifestyle, which operated five leisure facilities across Somerset—including Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street, and Wells—went into administration on April 1, citing significant financial challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
At the time, Fusion Lifestyle was managing the Tor Sports and Leisure Centre in Glastonbury, which recently underwent an upgrade funded by £2.29 million of central government grants as part of the wider £23.6 million Glastonbury town deal. However, the council has clarified that none of this funding was paid to Fusion Lifestyle. Instead, Fusion provided match funding of approximately £300,000 towards the fit-out phase after the main refurbishment was completed.
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This issue was raised by Councillor Dawn Denton at a recent council executive committee meeting in Taunton. Denton questioned the timing and due diligence of funding releases to Fusion, especially considering the charity’s financial instability as reported by Companies House. She also inquired about the council’s options for recovering any funds following Fusion’s administration.
Deputy Leader Liz Leyshon responded by confirming that the £2.29 million grant for the community sports and leisure hub project was administered by Somerset Council but was not paid to Fusion Lifestyle. According to Leyshon, Somerset Council retained the lease during the refurbishment period when the facility was closed. After refurbishment, the lease was reinstated to Fusion, which was responsible only for the fit-out, such as gym equipment and furniture, reflected as match funding.
To ensure continuity of services, the council has allocated £370,000 in interim funding to keep the five former Fusion sites operational for an additional three months. A new operator is expected to assume control of the leisure centres in early July. Reports suggest that Everyone Active and Freedom Leisure are currently contenders for the contract, which will initially last for two years and is unlikely to include major infrastructure investments.