Concerns raised as shortage of leisure centre staff across Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon has an impact on the public
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon councillors have vented frustration in relation to recruitment issues, and particularly so in leisure centre settings where staff shortages are having a real impact.
At South Lake Leisure Centre, the flagship leisure facility needs to recruit 26 lifeguards – 44 per cent of the numbers needed to have a full team.
At Banbridge Leisure Centre, four lifeguards are needed, and while that number might seem relatively small, it represents 24 per cent of required staff levels being missing.
Adding to the difficulties in meeting demand for full leisure provision is the fact that the leisure offering has never been more popular across the ABC Borough, with membership having almost doubled in just four years across all nine leisure centre facilities – from 10,609 in October 2021 to 19,985 in October 2025.
Leisure attendants, exercise class instructors, housekeepers and swimming teachers are also needed, with ABC Council finding itself unable to fill available vacancies.
Speaking at the latest Community & Wellbeing committee meeting, Alderman Margaret Tinsley (DUP) lamented that ongoing staffing issues still have not been resolved.
She commented: “Unfortunately, as always, the top operational issue is still the recruitment of staff. It’s no surprise because I’ve raised this on numerous occasions. Our HR process is just far too slow.
“We have a number of issues within the recruitment process.
“I do appreciate we’re a public body and we need to ensure due process, however, when a post is being advertised for several positions, and we’re not reaching our quota, I can’t understand why we’re having to go back to zero and having to re-recruit.
“There is bound to be a way of speeding that up. It’s not only in Recreation, but in our Waste Management Department as well, anything to do with a high turnover of positions. The process is too slow and it’s frustrating everyone.
“I would propose that officers review our current HR procedure for the signing-off process prior to recruitment, to speed up the current cumbersome and very slow process. I would further request officers review the signing-off process for repeat and high turnover.”
Director of Development, Community & Wellbeing, Paul Tamati acknowledged the issue: “I know the recruitment process is part of the GRS (Governance, Resources and Strategy) committee and HR, but I’ll be sure to pass those proposals on.
“My understanding is they are looking at present at a more streamlined process and trying to speed that up.”
Alderman Ian Burns (UUP) echoed Ald Tinsley’s concerns.
“It says our membership is going up, but so are the number of classes that aren’t being held because we haven’t got the staff, and it’s not fair on the customers that have paid their membership for the year and are being [penalised] because there’s nobody there to take the classes.”
Councillor Robbie Alexander (Alliance) shared his own personal experience.
“I would agree with everything that has been said.
“I take my wee one to swimming lessons and there’s normally two [classes] on in the learner pool, and I think it’s maybe 17 weeks running now that the second class hasn’t been run, because they haven’t had the staff to fill that post.
“[We have] very frustrated parents who are coming with their other child, and only one of them can go to their planned lesson, when two are supposed to be happening at the same time.”
Councillor Catherine Nelson (SF) was particularly keen to see a full quota of lifeguards recruited.
“Around the recruitment issues, is there a wee bit more of a story behind it? Is it just the HR processes? Or what else is it, particularly around the lifeguards, because obviously that’s something that we want to really make sure we’re never short of?" she asked.
“We don’t want to be cancelling swimming lessons when they’re hard enough to get. If it’s just people not applying, is it possible that we would maybe look to schools to partner with, by way of offering jobs and training for our young people, and encouraging them into it?”
The director of Development, Community & Wellbeing was open to the idea, but made it clear addressing staffing issues was a major challenge: “We do know that the labour market is challenging.
“It’s not just in leisure, it’s across all council jobs and in the private sector.
“This picture isn’t going to improve significantly in a short space of time. We can’t seem to reach capacity at any time, to be completely honest, and so we need to be a wee bit more innovative around how we do things going forward.”
Ald Tinsley’s proposal, calling for a streamlined recruitment process, enjoyed unanimous support and was consequently carried.
Cllr Nelson, however, had another query. She asked the senior council officer if it could be explored if a programme could be offered to school leavers.
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Paul Tamati indicated he would be happy to work on that.
Ald Tinsley remarked: “That’s something I raised a couple of years ago, and we actually introduced a trainee scheme where we brought young people in and trained them, and that actually was very successful. I don’t know why that no longer continued, but it’s something that officers can go and look at again.”
South Lake Leisure Centre general manager, Paul A Coleman ended the debate on a positive note, saying there is some real hope that new lifeguards will be fully trained up in the coming year.
“We have been speaking with HR. We are planning on going out for a lot of jobs in January [and train] lifeguards.
“We are hoping to attract a number of school leavers and young people, or just generally unskilled lifeguards who we can train up internally, and hopefully we can give them job opportunities.
“We’re hoping that those jobs will go live early in January, and we’re actively working towards those dates to hopefully have them in post as soon as possible.”