Tauranga gym operators are claiming the city council is subsidising gymnasia at Baywave and Greerton to their detriment. Tauranga City Council monitoring committee heard these complaints on Monday.
Monitoring committee chairman Murray Guy says what is required is a square metre comparison along with other operational costs so a direct comparison can be made.

Baywave.

The information the council wants is owned by the contractor LeisureCo (in liquidation), says council chief executive Stephen Town.
The council has only had access to the costs figures since Tauranga City Aquatics Ltd took over the LeisureCo operation a couple of months ago.
But he says the gym owners' assumption that the TCAL gyms are subsidised by council is incorrect.
One of the reasons LeisureCo won the contract was they predicted a considerable surplus from the gym operations,” says Stephen.
'The facility is not to be subsidised by the ratepayer, it's the other way round.”
Council staff are working on a policy governing commercial activities. It is not seen as a priority by council staff, but it can be rescheduled when the policy schedule is next prioritised in early 2010.