Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s finances were under pressure at the end of the first quarter of 2026/27, with the collapse of leisure operator Fusion Lifestyle accounting for the bulk of a forecast £525,000 overspend on services.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council was forecasting a £525,000 overspend on services for 2026/27 as at the end of June 2026, according to a revenue management report considered by the Finance, Innovation and Transformation Cabinet Advisory Board when it met on 7 September 2026.

Officers warned that the council would need to “carefully manage and control costs over the course of the year in order to return to a balanced budget position” and that, if it did not, the shortfall would be drawn from the General Fund.

Fusion Lifestyle collapse

The single largest pressure on the budget arose from the administration of Fusion Lifestyle, which had operated the council’s three leisure centres — Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, Weald Sports Centre and Putlands Sports and Leisure Centre — under a contract in place since 1 October 2006 that had been due to run until March 2027. Fusion Lifestyle entered administration on 1 April 2026.

The report stated that the council had been aware the company was experiencing financial difficulties and had been exploring options to ensure continuity of services. From July 2026, the centres were leased by Serco Leisure, in partnership with Leisure Solutions Community Trust.

During the period of administration, the council was required to contribute £220,000 towards the cost of operating the centres, and a further £21,000 in business rates. The council also lost the budgeted management fee of £389,000 it had expected to receive from Fusion Lifestyle. In total, the net forecast overspend attributable to the administration was £630,000.

Parking income and staffing vacancies

Some pressures were offset by better-than-expected income elsewhere. Off-street parking income was forecast to be £125,000 above budget, with £75,000 of that attributed to the reopening of Mount Pleasant Car Park and £50,000 to additional income from Crescent Road Car Park.

Staffing costs were forecast to be £278,000 under budget, partly because of vacancies across a number of services. The report noted a gap between the number of staff on the payroll and the number needed to deliver services and the capital programme, describing the issue as “widespread across the Council”. Vacancy savings were identified in parking, planning, The Amelia, housing, environmental health, policy and governance, and finance.

Reserves transfer proposed

Officers recommended that the £2,001,000 balance in the Grant Volatility Reserve be transferred to the Capital and Revenue Initiatives Earmarked Reserve to help finance the capital programme. An additional £200,000 in investment interest, forecast above budget due to higher cash balances and a better-than-expected interest rate, was also to be transferred to the same reserve.

The report also confirmed that Tunbridge Wells Borough Council would cease to exist on 1 April 2028, following the government’s agreement on 16 July 2026 to create a new West Kent Unitary authority comprising Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Malling, Sevenoaks and Maidstone councils, along with disaggregated services from Kent County Council.

The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the committee’s decision is not yet on the public record.

Sources

Top image: illustrative, computer-generated. Illustrative AI-generated image. This is not a photograph of any of the Tunbridge Wells leisure centres or any other real building.