Award winning Mildenhall Hub positive progress under scrutiny

03 Mar 2023

Councillors will be scrutinising a report examining the positive progress made by the nationally award winning Mildenhall Hub in its first 20 months of being open.

The report to West Suffolk Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 9 March shows how the Hub is already performing well against the objectives set for it in 2017.
 
Paid for by a partnership of public organisations and funding bodies, Mildenhall Hub is ground-breaking nationally as a One Public Estate Programme initiative providing modern facilities and easier access to services for the local community. It is innovative in bringing education, health, leisure and other public services together to work more closely and provide better outcomes, especially around health and wellbeing.

The report outlines the early achievements – including meeting the ten objectives set for the project (see notes to editors). In addition, membership to the leisure centre has risen beyond expectations and close working with health has seen better outcomes for a range of people using the Hub including journeys to hospital avoided for outpatient appointments. With new facilities, school attainment is also up and the number of people using their library card at Mildenhall has increased by nearly 80 per cent, with loans up by more 50 per cent.  

Achievements highlighted in the report for the Council-funded leisure facilities include:

• Membership of the leisure centre is up 127 per cent since opening against an estimate of around 60 per cent.
• This includes enrolment in the Swim Academy up by 100 per cent compared to an estimate of around 20 per cent. Overall use of the leisure facilities is up at least 60%.
• 33 Park Run events have been hosted  up to January 2023, attracting 2,946 attendances by 1,310 individuals.

Two integrated leisure and health pathways with NHS are also in place which target frailty and pulmonary rehabilitation (which includes Long Covid). The Hub has hosted the Sporting Memories initiative for older people, the Catch 22 Suffolk Positive Futures initiative to reduce anti-social behaviour and a place-based physical activity pilot with the NHS. There is a cardiac rehabilitation programme in place using the leisure facilities while children attending the speech and language sessions also benefit by being able to go straight to the library to choose some books.

The environmental performance of the hub is also featured in the report. Among many renewable energy features, 741 solar panels saved over £40,000 worth of electricity and 140 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2022.  The building’s battery storage system has saved another 44 tonnes of emissions in that period. 

Despite being built in the middle of the Pandemic, the report highlights that the cost to the Council of building its parts of the scheme rose by less than 4 per cent from early provisional estimates made in 2018.

But this is matched by higher than expected rents and estimated savings which means after two years, the Hub looks on track to meet its break-even test for taxpayers by year five.
 
The report also highlights some of the learning taken from the first 20 months of seeing how the public use the building.  

This includes looking at the use of drop-off and parking for people with disabilities as well as working with Suffolk County Council Highways to carry out a final audit on the main junction to the site. 

Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, Cllr Ian Shipp, said: “This was a large investment, and the Hub has had a significant impact on provision of public services in and around Mildenhall. I am looking forward to hearing first-hand about its first 20 months and, with the committee, look at what was expected, what has been achieved as well as lessons we may take forward, including future improvements now it is being used.”

Cllr Jo Rayner, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Community Hubs, said: “The Hub was a huge and bold investment in the community of Mildenhall and the surrounding area by the Council and its partner. The main aim was not just to bring better facilities for Mildenhall but to improve access to services. With it, and the benefits of partners working together, we are making a positive difference to our residents’ lives, with better outcomes in education, health and wellbeing and leisure participation. This is the future for public services and the work by Overview and Scrutiny is a vital step in making sure we are achieving what we set out to achieve and how we improve. I am looking forward to discussing with Committee so they can give their view to Cabinet.
 

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