A MEMBER of Denbighshire’s cabinet has resigned from the role, slamming the planned sale and privatisation of Denbighshire Leisure Ltd.
Cllr Gwyneth Ellis, lead member for finance, performance, and strategic assets, has resigned from Denbighshire County Council’s cabinet but will continue as a councillor.
Her decision follows a row about the planned sale of Denbighshire Leisure Ltd (DLL) behind closed doors at a council meeting late last month.
The council plans to sell its leisure company in a bid to save money and ‘safeguard services for the future’.
The company runs eight leisure centres, the SC2 Water Park in Rhyl, the 1891 Restaurant and Bar at Rhyl’s theatre, Rhyl Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl Town Hall, North Wales Bowls Centre, Nova in Prestatyn, and Ruthin Craft Centre and its Cafe R eatery. The company employs more than 500 members of staff.
But Cllr Ellis said she had ‘serious concerns’ about a lack of information about future growth, the shareholdings for staff, the loss of control of leisure services, and the privatisation of the company.
Cllr Ellis said that DLL had been a ‘success story’ for the council, as it had kept costs down whilst dealing with COVID, the closure of SC2 due to storm damage, and sea defence work disrupting trade.
But she added she had four ‘serious concerns’ which ‘hadn’t been addressed’.
“(There is a) Lack of information about future growth plans. For the proposed agreement to work, DLL must be able to increase their revenue by enough to reduce the fee to the council and to repay their investor,” she said.
“This should be achieved through a combination of savings and growth. Even though I and others have asked repeatedly, we haven’t seen the business case that explains how that is to be achieved. I feel that knowledge of this is key to have confidence that DLL can achieve their plans, and that their growth is achieved through means which the council will be comfortable with. I was surprised that so many councillors were prepared to accept the proposal without seeing the business plans. To my knowledge, the board of directors of DLL have also not seen the business plans.”
The Plaid Cymru and Edeirnion ward councillor then cited ‘the proposed shareholdings’ as another reason for her objecting to the plans.
“Although there are future plans to provide shares for the employees, the ultimate legal structure has not yet been defined, and the legal method by which that structure is ensured has not been agreed,” she said.
Another reason for her resignation was the ‘future loss of control of leisure services’.
“All through the process, councillors have been reassured that control of the service will be retained through ownership of the buildings, and good contract management. However, as another councillor put it, a contract only gives you control if you have leverage. It will be very difficult to bring in another operator, or take the service back in house; therefore, DLL will have a lot of power if they want to renegotiate the contract in the future.”
She was also concerned about a ‘lack of options’.
She said: “Throughout the process, there has been an implied threat that, if this proposal was not accepted, then leisure services would be endangered. Councillors were not given a report to explain why leisure services might be endangered, and no other options were explored in depth.”
She added: “On top of all that, I am in principle opposed to privatisation. I think that services to people are severely degraded in many areas now because of the privatisation that happened during the 1980s and 90s.
“I will admit that sometimes there may be good reasons to go against that principle, but in this case, I wasn’t convinced. Whilst this was a council decision, I felt very disappointed that a cabinet of Labour and Plaid Cymru members voted by a large majority to privatise DLL whilst also not exercising their power to demand that DLL provide their business case, or that DCC officers investigated other options that would negate the worries about the share structure and loss of control.
“Moving forward, the cabinet and senior officers at DCC will be spending a lot of time on this DLL sale, and I didn’t feel able to be a part of that and to work constructively towards that end.”
Cllr Ellis said she had ‘enjoyed the opportunity to serve on the cabinet’ and that Labour and Plaid Cymru members have worked well together in a constructive manner.
But she added: “I feel that the cabinet has tried to do the best for the people of Denbighshire through some very challenging circumstances, but this decision and cabinet’s part in it was not right, in my opinion.”
Responding to her departure, leader Cllr Jason McLellan said: “I’d like to express my gratitude to Gwyneth for all her hard work as cabinet lead member for the past three years.”
He added: “She has always put the interests of Denbighshire’s residents first, and while I am sad to see her leave, I respect her decision. On a professional and personal level, it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with Gwyneth, and I will miss the dedication she brought to her role.”
A spokeswoman for Denbighshire County Council said: “The decision to approve, in principle, a management buyout of DLL, supported by a private investment, was made by full council on 26 March 2025.
“In making their decision, councillors were provided with a significant amount of information which had been considered previously in two separate member briefings and a scrutiny committee meeting as well as the meeting on 26 March 2025.”
She added: “The decision was made subject to a number of practical and regulatory matters to be determined over the next few months, and the proposed transaction will need to go through the council’s governance structure prior to final completion.”
