Having been unable to go out as much over the last two years, leisure and cultural services have taken a fairly big hit as a result of the pandemic.
Leisure and cultural services in Bridgend (sports clubs aside) are provided by a mix of Halo Leisure, Awen Cultural Trust, voluntary organisations and Bridgend Council themselves.
In a (fairly extensive) report due to be discussed by a BCBC scrutiny committee (pdf), officers say that as of October 2021 the rate of return to leisure and cultural activities in the UK is at anything between 60-80% of the pre-pandemic level.
In Bridgend, during 2021 there were 276,000 visits to leisure and cultural venues compared to 565,000 in 2019 (-51.2%).
Swimming & Exercise
“Learn to swim” sessions have reportedly returned to 80% of pre-pandemic levels but there are capacity constraints and there’s a 21-month backlog in school swimming sessions. It’s hoped these school swimming sessions can restart sometime during 2022. Since the free swimming programme resumed, there’s evidence of a large take-up by under-16s and adults.
In another bit of good news, face-to-face sessions in the “Feel Good For Life” programme for people with dementia have restarted, resulting in increased confidence in visiting leisure centres.
Meanwhile, Halo has developed a pilot swimming programme for people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) which is hoped could be expanded in the future.
Programmes aimed at supporting healthy lifestyles amongst young people more generally have had to adapt, including providing e-learning resources and videos.
Bryngarw Park has had 350,000 visitors over the last 18 months.
Libraries and Digital Services
The “Feel Good For Life” programme mentioned above has provided devices, training and online activities for vulnerable people and has subsequently won a health and wellbeing award.
Library services have continued to operate since June 2020, moving to click-and-collect, bookable browsing & IT sessions and mobile libraries (which were used by 450 people). Up to 1,500 children registered to take part in a literacy challenge/fun day at Bryngarw Park in summer 2021.
Cultural & Voluntary Services
Work is ongoing in developing a business case for redevelopment and renovation of Porthcawl Pavilion, while construction work continues on the Maesteg Town Hall development.
More than 5,100 people have been supported through voluntary organisations during the pandemic. This has resulted in more than 860 people being diverted away from mainstream services to receive support in the community.
